Entering the 2023 season, the Pittsburgh Steelers looked to have a pretty strong tight end room. Pat Freiermuth was entering his third season and had a solid 2022 season with 63 receptions for 732 yards and two touchdowns. The Steelers spent a third-round draft pick on Darnell Washington, and Connor Heyward had a solid rookie season in his own right in 2022.
The arrow seemed to be pointing up for the tight end group, but the numbers tell a different story now that the 2023 regular season is over.
| 2023 Tight End Group Totals | |||||
| Player | Games Played | Receptions | Targets | Yards | TDs |
| Connor Heyward | 17 | 23 | 34 | 167 | 0 |
| Darnell Washington | 17 | 7 | 10 | 61 | 0 |
| Pat Freiermuth | 12 | 32 | 47 | 308 | 2 |
| Rodney Williams | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| TE TOTAL: | 62 | 93 | 536 | 2 | |
So, the leading tight end, Freiermuth, barely broke the 300-yard mark and that is including his 120-yard game against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12. If you take that game out, he averaged a hair over 17 receiving yards in the remaining 11 games he played. He missed five games with injury and still nearly doubled the next highest output from any other Pittsburgh tight end.
Heyward saw a slight uptick in his production from his rookie season with 167 yards on 23 receptions. That is 16 more yards and 11 more receptions than last season, though he didn’t find the end zone like he did in 2022. Washington was used way less than most expected in his rookie season with seven receptions on 10 targets for 61 yards, though he saw a lot of snaps as an extra blocker. Rodney Williams was targeted twice but failed to secure any receptions.
There are 12 tight ends in the 2023 season around the league that have over 536 yards and over two touchdowns this season. Twelve individuals outperformed the Steelers’ entire unit combined. So how does this group’s overall production of 62 receptions for 536 yards and two touchdowns stack up against other Pittsburgh tight end groups of the last 20 years? Not great.
| Last 20 Season TE Totals | ||||
| Season | Receptions | Targets | Yards | TDs |
| 2004 | 17 | 30 | 188 | 5 |
| 2005 | 43 | 57 | 522 | 6 |
| 2006 | 41 | 62 | 466 | 6 |
| 2007 | 53 | 69 | 609 | 11 |
| 2008 | 65 | 92 | 650 | 3 |
| 2009 | 83 | 109 | 823 | 7 |
| 2010 | 55 | 91 | 638 | 3 |
| 2011 | 63 | 88 | 722 | 3 |
| 2012 | 81 | 116 | 876 | 10 |
| 2013 | 70 | 98 | 784 | 2 |
| 2014 | 70 | 97 | 808 | 5 |
| 2015 | 70 | 95 | 601 | 3 |
| 2016 | 75 | 126 | 840 | 6 |
| 2017 | 62 | 96 | 592 | 5 |
| 2018 | 86 | 119 | 1119 | 6 |
| 2019 | 53 | 76 | 408 | 3 |
| 2020 | 71 | 112 | 657 | 5 |
| 2021 (17 games) | 93 | 125 | 756 | 8 |
| 2022 (17 games) | 94 | 138 | 1015 | 3 |
| 2023 (17 games) | 62 | 93 | 536 | 2 |
The 2023 group had two total touchdowns, which is tied for the lowest scoring production from the unit in the last 20 seasons along with the 2013 season. That year, Heath Miller was 31 years old coming off a reconstructive knee surgery from a multi-ligament tear. Even the 2004 group that had 188 total yards from the tight ends managed five touchdowns.
The yardage output was also the lowest since 2019, when Ben Roethlisberger suffered a season-ending elbow injury in the second game. Prior to that, you would need to go back to 2006 to find a Steelers tight end group that produced less yardage. Keep in mind that the NFL switched to a 17-game schedule in 2021, so anything prior to that has one less game played.
Roethlisberger talked about this during his live stream of the Steelers-Ravens game on Saturday on his Footbahlin’ YouTube podcast.
“I think he’s got 290-something yards this year,” Roethlisberger said about Freiermuth’s season. “And he had a 100-yard game. That’s all? Your stud tight end has less than 300 yards receiving? I know he didn’t play some, but come on. He should be having 50 to 75 yards a game.”
The Steelers will have an interesting discussion about Freiermuth this offseason. He is entering the window in which the Steelers typically make decisions on extending players with one year remaining on the current contract. The market for tight ends has been relatively hot recently with big deals for guys like T.J. Hockenson and Cole Kmet.
These numbers are not overly surprising given the Steelers’ lack of utilization of the middle of the field where tight ends make most of their money but given the level of talent on the roster at the position it is somewhat curious. Under three different quarterbacks in Kenny Pickett, Mason Rudolph, and Mitch Trubisky, and two different offensive coordinators in Matt Canada and Eddie Faulkner, the tight end group remained underutilized.
