The 2024 season is expected to be a big one for fourth-year Pittsburgh Steelers’ tight end Pat Freiermuth, especially in new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith’s scheme.
Should it be a big season like many anticipate, Freiermuth — who is due a contract extension from the Steelers this offseason — should be able to get back into the top 10 discussions at the tight end position in the NFL.
For now, though, he remains on the outside looking in when it comes to that discussion. For CBS Sports’ Jared Dubin, Freiermuth is the 14th-best tight end in football. Freiermuth finds himself behind the likes of Buffalo’s Dalton Kincaid, Jacksonville’s Evan Engram, Atlanta’s Kyle Pitts, and Houston’s Dalton Schultz outside of the top 10.
“Freiermuth missed a few games due to injury, but even when healthy, he took a step backward, along with the rest of Pittsburgh’s offense last season,” Dubin writes regarding Freiermuth and his ranking at the tight end position. “He posted career lows in receptions and yards per game, as well as success rate on those catches, and his yards per reception average dropped two full yards from 2022 to 2023.
“He’s going to move up the pecking order in the passing game this year, though, and in a more functional offense, should be able to tap back into what made him effective during his first two NFL seasons. Hopefully.”
It was a bit of a disappointing season for Pat Freiermuth in Year 3 in the NFL. He dealt with a hamstring injury that caused him to miss five games, and when he was on the field throughout much of the season, he was largely invisible in the passing game and was a mess as a blocker. With former offensive coordinator Matt Canada at the helm, the middle of the field was simply not a place that the Steelers attacked in the passing game, which is where Freiermuth has done quite a bit of damage in his career.
After hauling in 60+ passes in his first two seasons, making NFL history, Freiermuth took a major step backward this season, finishing with just 32 receptions. He found the end zone in two of the first three weeks of the season but never found the end zone again. Outside of his career day in Week 12 against the Bengals, ironically, one game after Canada was fired, Freiermuth had nine receptions for 120 yards.
But that was about it for Pat Freiermuth on the season. He did have five receptions for 76 yards in the playoff loss, but the Steelers never quite figured out a way to get him involved in the passing game consistently. As he struggled to have a role in the passing game throughout much of the season, Freiermuth really had issues as a blocker.
Entering the 2024 season, though, expectations are high, in large part due to the opportunity in front of him in Smith’s TE-friendly offense.
As an offensive coordinator in Tennessee and a head coach in Atlanta, Smith has utilized the tight end position extensively. Often, that includes using the position as a true WR2 option.
That sets up well in Pittsburgh and should have Freiermuth salivating at the opportunity to put a tough 2023 season behind him and get back to being a top 8-10 tight end in the NFL.
Based on the TE usage study from Jeremy Pike for Steelers Depot, TEs saw a target share of between 26% and 34% in Atlanta under Smith. Last season alone, tight ends Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith both had 50-plus receptions and more than 580 yards, finding the end zone three times each.
Opportunities in the passing game will be abundant for Pat Freiermuth under Smith, assuming the fourth-year tight end can stay healthy in 2024. If he’s on the field, production should not be a problem whatsoever for the Penn State product.
With that production should come an elevation in his game, putting him back into the top 8-10 at the position. This would, in turn, help out the Steelers’ offense in a major way.
