Pittsburgh Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth hasn’t put up the numbers you might expect as arguably the team’s biggest receiving threat in George Pickens’ absence. Over the past three games, he has had two touchdowns but just nine catches on 12 targets. He has a total of 86 yards, including just 38 over the past two games.
The Steelers insist that Freiermuth remains an integral part of their passing offense, even if it doesn’t always seem like it. After signing a considerable contract extension this offseason, he is only seeing four targets per game.
Compare that to the tight end Travis Kelce, who will be on the other side of the field today. Yes, Kelce is a future Hall of Famer (and a fan of the Steelers tight end), but he has more than twice Freiermuth’s targets. Just two years ago, by way of comparison, the Steelers targeted him more than six times per game. Yet they talk about how valuable he is, including Russell Wilson yesterday.
“I think any time Pat [Freiermuth] touches the football for us is a good thing”, he said via the transcript provided by the Steelers. “He helps us really attack the field vertically, attack it in the edges. Just, he knows how to get first downs for us. He did a good job picking up some big first-downs last week. And so we trust him in every way”.
Pat Freiermuth has 28 catches on just 33 targets in nine games with Russell Wilson. Despite the limited work, he has turned that into 314 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Just recently, he ended a run of three consecutive games with a touchdown catch. It was the first such run for a Steelers tight end since Heath Miller.
On the season, Freiermuth is up to 50 catches for 508 yards and six touchdowns. While he has finally found the end zone again in an efficient quantity, one can easily argue he is underutilized. He has only seen five or more targets in four games this year despite having an 84.7 catch rate.
On his 50 catches, Freiermuth has produced 26 first downs—including one from Kyle Allen. The Steelers have about a 66-percent successful play rate when targeting him. On unsuccessful completed plays, nearly half of them are on second or third down and excessively long.
Whether Justin Fields, Russell Wilson, Arthur Smith, or Mike Tomlin, the Steelers have not exploited everything Pat Freiermuth could do for the offense this year. That seems to have been the story for most of his career. While he is efficient when he catches the ball, he just doesn’t see the volume.
