In a surprise move Tuesday afternoon during the 2024 NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, the Atlanta Falcons released veteran tight end Jonnu Smith, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
Smith was set to make $6.5 million in 2024 before being released.
Smith spent the 2023 season with the Falcons and had a great bounce-back to his career after two rough seasons with the New England Patriots.
In 2023, Smith recorded 50 receptions for 582 yards and three touchdowns, holding down a key role in former head coach Arthur Smith’s scheme.
The move to Atlanta in 2023 was a key reunion for the Smiths as Jonnu Smith had great success in Tennessee in 2019 and 2020 under Arthur Smith when he was the Titans’ offensive coordinator. In 2019, Smith had 35 receptions for 435 yards and three touchdowns and then truly burst onto the scene in 2020. He hauled in 41 passes for 448 yards and a career-high eight touchdowns, adding a rushing touchdown that season as well.
Arthur Smith was also Jonnu Smith’s tight ends coach in the latter’s first two NFL seasons before being promoted to offensive coordinator, so there is a very strong connection between the two.
Arthur Smith left Tennessee ahead of the 2021 season to become the head coach in Atlanta while Jonnu Smith signed a four-year, $50 million deal with the New England Patriots.
Things didn’t go all that well for Smith in New England. He had just 55 receptions for 539 receiving yards and one touchdown across two seasons, leading to a trade to the Falcons in March 2023 and reuniting him with his former offensive coordinator under which he had great success.
That then led to a strong season with the Falcons.
Now Smith is back on the open market at just 28 years old.
A third-round pick out of Florida International in the 2018 NFL Draft, Smith will undoubtedly be connected to the Pittsburgh Steelers as a free agent due to Arthur Smith being the Steelers’ new offensive coordinator.
It would be a curious fit though, considering the Steelers have three solid tight ends in Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington and Connor Heyward. The fact that Smith doesn’t have much if any special teams value and has just 76 total special teams snaps in the last four seasons is a major strike against him as a potential fit for the Steelers.
He’d have to sign relatively cheap, and the Steelers would have to have a plan to carve out 400-500 snaps for him offensively, which doesn’t exactly seem feasible right now with the way the roster is constructed.
Make no mistake though: that connection between the two Smiths is there.
It helps that Arthur Smith likes to run a lot of 12 and 13 personnel sets and utilizes tight ends quite a bit. It’s also worth mentioning that Freiermuth is entering the final year of his rookie contract and is in line for an extension while Heyward could potentially shift into more of an H-back role under Arthur Smith, opening up a spot for a second or third tight end in the pecking order behind Freiermuth.
We’ll see if there is any interest in Jonnu Smith from the Steelers’ perspective. It’s possible with Arthur Smith now on the coaching staff. But on paper the Steelers seem set at tight end. Stranger things have happened though.
