The Pittsburgh Steelers aren’t sitting on their laurels this offseason. They’ve made several uncharacteristic and aggressive moves in hopes of a stronger 2025. One of them was a recent trade that included the acquisition of TE Jonnu Smith.
An exciting element to his 2024 Pro Bowl season was his yards after catch (YAC) abilities, which is a very important element for the position, considering that many are targeted close to the line of scrimmage. This is definitely the case for the Steelers and OC Arthur Smith, seeing the position utilized in this manner often last season.
Here is a visual to illustrate yards after catch for highly targeted tight ends in 2024 (min. 70 targets):
Jonnu Smith jumps out on the ideal top right of the chart, providing a third-ranked 5.9 yards after catch out of the 16 qualifying tight ends. Only two TEs posted better YAC: 49er George Kittle (6.6) and Dalton Kincaid (6.5). They were certainly impressive, but seeing Smith’s larger volume of 109 targets (fourth most) makes his results even more impressive in my opinion.
More specifically, Smith had the best YAC of players with 100-plus targets, which emphasizes the consistency he displayed with the ball in his hands. This is very exciting, and it makes it more reasonable to expect that Smith can bring that to Pittsburgh, which has had issues over the years getting YAC from their playmakers.
Encouragingly, the Steelers made strides in yards after catch in Arthur Smith’s first year with the team in 2024. Now Jonnu Smith reunites with a coach for much of his career, which, on paper, is another reason to reasonably expect more of the same.
For context, here are Jonnu Smith’s YAC and targets per season for his career, with stars indicating which came with Arthur Smith:
2024 (Dolphins): 5.9, 109 targets
*2023 (Atlanta): 7.3, 69 targets
2022 (New England): 7.5 37 targets
2021 (New England): 8.5 43 targets
*2020 (Tennessee): 5.8, 63 targets
*2019 (Tennessee): 8.1, 44 targets
*2018 (Tennessee): 9.2, 29 targets
*2017 (Tennessee): 5.8, 28 targets
He has a very nice resume, with five of eight seasons featuring a plus-7.0 YAC number. So, he provided even better quality over quantity for the majority of his career. That seems likely to be how things will play out in the Steel City in 2025 (barring injury), considering his proven success, including with his current coach, who loves stocking his tight end rooms.
Jonnu Smith joins Pat Freiermuth, who was also one of the 16 tight ends with 70-plus targets in 2024. The latter’s 4.3 YAC in 2024 was less than Smith has ever had. In fact, Freiermuth has never eclipsed a 5.0 yards after catch average in his career:
2024: 4.3
2023: 4.8
2022: 4.6
2021: 4.2
While Freiermuth is a skilled piece of the offense, what a staggering YAC difference between the two tight ends. It will be interesting to see how their targets are impacted; they will likely see less individual volume than they did last year. That bodes well for what we now know about Smith, who has been an impressive YAC playmaker, particularly in less targeted seasons.
Smith’s YAC appears to be a missing piece of the Steelers’ offensive puzzle that needs to be better in 2025, and the data makes for a comfortable confidence that it will look similar in the Black and Gold. Get ready.
