Pat Freiermuth is the only Steelers player with multiple receiving touchdowns this year. George Pickens found the end zone once, but a penalty took it away. Since then, the third-year wide receiver has struggled to maintain focus, and the spotlight is back on him. All of his teammates are now fielding questions about him, especially in light of his low-snap percentage last Sunday.
Pickens wore the message, “Open Fucking Always”, on his eye black during the Cowboys game. Many took that as a sort of protest about his usage, even though he was coming off a season-high in targets. Then he only played 59 percent of the snaps and generally didn’t look very good.
While Pickens may have concerns about his targets, the Steelers are also underutilizing Pat Freiermuth. At least that is the theory, considering they signed him to a big new contract last month. He only has 23 targets on the year, but he has 20 catches and two touchdowns. Asked about his target share across a 73-percent snap share, he had an interesting response.
“Everyone can bitch and complain about a lack of targets, but it’s the stuff you do without the ball”, Freiermuth said, according to Mike DeFabo of The Athletic, who drew the connection to Pickens. “That’s what leaders do. That’s what good teammates do. I block my ass off regardless”.
Now, was Pat Freiermuth indirectly or subconsciously referring to George Pickens here in any way? I don’t know, but the timing lends itself to those thoughts. Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin basically admitted that Pickens’ snap share is low because he isn’t blocking or giving maximum effort when he isn’t directly involved in plays. He didn’t put it that bluntly, but that’s the only reason you don’t play your clear-cut No. 1 WR more.
The Steelers drafted Pat Freiermuth in the second round in 2021, George Pickens in the second round in 2022. With his new contract, they have already made Freiermuth a part of their future core, but the jury is out as far as Pickens goes, and that will hinge largely on how he handles the rest of this season.
Pickens is probably not happy about playing in a run-first offense, especially when the run game isn’t even very successful. He sees himself as the best in the game but doesn’t receive the targets to match. But then again, he doesn’t always make the plays that match, either. While Freiermuth doesn’t have a robust efficiency marking in terms of yards per catch, he is actually posting his highest successful play rate per catch of his career at 56.5 percent. That is ninth among wide receivers with at least 20 targets this season.
