Pittsburgh Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth is hoping for a big year with new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith. Smith has a reputation for making use of tight ends, so there is a certain logic there. And he could certainly use a big season, considering he is entering a contract year. That is unless he and the Steelers agree on a contract extension before the season begins.
I get the feeling that Freiermuth and his camp would prefer to wait, however. They can cash in with a career year, unless the Steelers are willing to pay in advance for that projection. Either way, Kyle McCarthy, Freiermuth’s agent, is excited for his client to play under Arthur Smith.
“My agent is really close with him, and he called me immediately and said, ‘Dude, you’re going to love him’”, Freiermuth said about Smith, via Mike DeFabo of The Athletic. “The offense is sick towards tight ends”.
McCarthy is a former NFL safety who now works for the Athletes First agency. Freiermuth is one of roughly a dozen current clients he holds. Admittedly, I haven’t found any obvious immediate connections between him and Arthur Smith. But it is an agent’s job to have relationships with everybody, and Athletes First is a big agency.
Not that Freiermuth needed his agent to tell him that Smith likes tight ends. He pretty much uses tight ends more often than anybody else in the league, and nothing suggests he plans to deviate from that now that he is in Pittsburgh.
A former second-round pick, Pat Freiermuth has 155 career receptions for 1,537 yards and 11 touchdowns in three seasons. He missed five games last season, limiting him to just 32 catches for 308 yards and two touchdowns.
Freiermuth and his agent are hoping for a strong bounce-back season under Smith that firmly establishes him as a top-10 tight end. He has had as many as 732 receiving yards in a season, with a career high of seven touchdowns. He is capable of putting up some numbers if given the opportunity, and Smith may provide him with that.
The Steelers very well may need Freiermuth to go out there and earn himself a handsome new contract. Outside of WR George Pickens, they don’t have much in the way of receiving threats. After trading Diontae Johnson, their wide receiver depth is full of question marks.
Of course, the flip side to this is that Smith is going to expect a lot more out of Freiermuth as a blocker. That is an area of his game that has been very hit or miss throughout his career. But it seems to be more a matter of motivation than of ability, and perhaps Smith will provide him with the motivation necessary to get the best out of him more consistently. Especially after his agent told him he will love playing for him.
