Early on in the season for the Pittsburgh Steelers, their tight end Pat Freiermuth held a large role on the offense. As Pittsburgh failed to land a talented receiver to pair with George Pickens, Freiermuth entered the season looking like the true second pass-catching option on the roster. Through the first four games of the season, that seemed to be holding true. Freiermuth had 20 targets through that span, and caught 17 of them.
Ever since then, there’s been a bit of growth on the Steelers offense. Players like WR Calvin Austin III and TE Darnell Washington have each seen their roles increase as the year’s gone on. While he hasn’t made a huge impact yet, the Steelers also added a new pass-catching option in WR Mike Williams. With all of that going on, Freiermuth has started to see his own role decrease a bit.
However, against a weaker Cincinnati Bengals’ defense on Sunday, Freiermuth could have a chance to break out. Pittsburgh Post Gazette’s Brian Batko seems to think so, as he explained on Friday’s episode of the North Shore Drive Podcast.
“This could be a game where Pat Freiermuth can feast a little bit over the middle,” Batko said. “Logan Wilson, their [Bengals] inside linebacker who’s really good, Mike Tomlin talked Tuesday about how they’re blitzing him more and using him as an extra pass rusher. That could open up some of the quick game for Russell Wilson. It looked like that rapport was coming along a little with Freiermuth last week in Cleveland, so maybe they can get a little bit more of that going and do so consistently.”
As Batko alluded to, Freiermuth did see some more opportunities last week against the Cleveland Browns. His four targets weren’t anything special. However, he did catch all four of them, and racked up 59 receiving yards in the process. That’s the highest amount of targets he’s gotten in any game with Russell Wilson at quarterback.
Batko also mentions Mike Tomlin’s point about Logan Wilson blitzing more frequently. Tomlin’s not wrong, as Wilson blitzed six times in the Bengals loss to the Los Angeles Chargers last Sunday. That was by far the highest amount of any Bengals defender.
When a player blitzes, their spot is one of the first places the quarterback will look to throw the ball. When a linebacker blitzes, that often means the middle of the field is open. As a tight end, that’s certainly an opportunity for Freiermuth to thrive this week.
