The hype train for fourth-year Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth continues to gain steam and roll down the tracks at a high rate of speed toward the start of the 2024 regular season.
With new offensive coordinator Arthur Smith overseeing the Steelers’ offense in 2024, expectations are sky-high for the fourth-year tight end. He is coming off a rough 2023 season marred by injury, but now has a great opportunity to bounce back in a tight end-friendly offense.
Throughout Organized Team Activities and mandatory minicamp, Freiermuth turned heads, looking like a potentially significant playmaker in the Steelers’ offense, which still has questions that need answered among the pass catchers.
That development from Freiermuth surprised many, including ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, who named Freiermuth the Steelers player who “surprised most” during the offseason for ESPN.com.
“Arthur Smith’s offense is a tight end’s dream, and it’s already waking up Freiermuth from a nightmare of a 2023 season,” Pryor writes. “Hampered by a nagging hamstring injury and playing in a disjointed offense, Freiermuth had a career-low 32 catches for 308 yards, less than half of his output from 2022. But the 2021 second-round pick is poised for a resurgence with a new quarterback and offensive coordinator, and he showed early signs of good chemistry with quarterback Russell Wilson through offseason workouts.
“The Steelers don’t have a solid WR2 option, but that might not matter as much if Freiermuth continues on the kind of upward trajectory he established this offseason.”
The Steelers still have questions at the wide receiver position, particularly at WR2 behind George Pickens, as currently it’s a hodgepodge of veteran names like Van Jefferson, Scotty Miller, Calvin Austin III, Quez Watkins and rookie Roman Wilson. It’s not exactly a comforting feeling at receiver right now for the Steelers.
But it might not matter much if Freiermuth takes off and reaches expectations in Smith’s offense.
It’s important to remember that it was just football in shorts. No real conclusions can be drawn until the pads come on in training camp, but Freiermuth’s performance throughout the offseason is rather encouraging, considering the opportunity he has ahead of him in 2024 in Smith’s offense, which utilizes the tight end position heavily and is largely a dream for the position.
Throughout his tenure as an offensive coordinator in Tennessee and a head coach in Atlanta, Smith loved to utilize the tight ends in the passing game, often leaning on 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 580 yards, finding the end zone three times each as well.
There will be plenty of opportunities for 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, which should help elevate his game back into the top 8-10 at the position, and in turn would help out the Steelers’ offense in a major way.
