Player: TE Pat Freiermuth
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: After talk of the Steelers needing to feature Pat Freiermuth against the Ravens, he turned in a rough performance. While he caught most of his targets, he struggled to pick up yards after the catch. Beyond that, he contributed little in the Steelers’ 28-14 loss, and particularly was of little use as a safety valve when plays broke down. The Steelers’ eligibles struggled all night to get open for Russell Wilson, one of the keys of Freiermuth’s job.
Few things seemed to go right for the Pittsburgh Steelers yesterday—including targets to Pat Freiermuth. On four total targets, the Steelers produced 15 yards of offense through him. They picked up zero first downs along the way, and three of his targets came on third down.
During the build-up to the game, many pundits talked about how Freiermuth would be key to upsetting the Ravens. Perhaps he could have been, in different circumstances, but that’s not how the game played out. Some of that was about how the Steelers used him, but he didn’t help himself by dropping a pass on the first play of the game.
The other three targets Pat Freiermuth saw all came on third down, all, in fairness, short of the sticks. But a tight end is supposed to be able to pick up those last few tough yards, like Heath Miller did. Twice, Freiermuth came up just short near the sticks and the Steelers punted. On the other occasion, it was 3rd and excessively long, the kind of pass that usually goes to Jaylen Warren.
The thing is, Freiermuth didn’t really help outside of his targets either. While his blocking is always spotty at best, the run game had little to no life. Most egregious is that he didn’t get open on scramble drills. And Russell Wilson scrambled a lot during the game. Often, he took a sack or threw the ball away—because Freiermuth and company weren’t open.
Freiermuth is arguably coming off his best season. Fresh off signing a new deal, he caught 65 passes for 653 yards and 7 touchdowns. He posted a remarkably high 83.4-percent catch rate, and a 62.8-percent success rate, both comfortably career bests. But in the biggest game of the season, he didn’t make the plays the Steelers paid him to make.
As the season draws to a conclusion, Steelers players’ stocks rise and fall. The nature of the evaluation differs with the time of year, with in-season considerations being more often short-term. Considerations in the offseason often have broader implications, particularly when players lose their jobs, or the team signs someone. This time of year is full of transactions, whether minor or major.
A bad game, a new contract, an injury, a promotion—any number of things affect a player’s value. Think of it as a stock on the market, based on speculation. You’ll feel better about a player after a good game, or worse after a bad one. Some stock updates are minor, while others are likely to be quite drastic, so bear in mind the degree. I’ll do my best to explain the nature of that in the reasoning section of each column.
