On the surface, losing offensive coordinator Arthur Smith might appear negative for players like Pat Freiermuth. After all, Smith was the most tight end-centric offensive coordinator in the league, using 12 and 13 personnel more than any other coach. Even as the offense opens up under Mike McCarthy, Freiermuth\u2019s role could as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is gonna be a great offense for Pat Freiermuth,\u201d The Athletic\u2019s Mike DeFabo said on 93.7 The Fan Friday.<\/a> \u201cI would expect his production and playing time to be more in line with a guy that you\u2019re paying to be one of the top 10 players at his position.\u201d<\/p>\n Freiermuth is coming off a disappointing season. Despite having his best quarterback since Ben Roethlisberger, Freiermuth finished 2025 with just 41 receptions for 486 yards and four touchdowns, career lows across the seasons he was largely healthy for. A large chunk of his production came in a Week 7 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, a team he\u2019s regularly torched, but he failed to make a major impact elsewhere.<\/p>\n It didn\u2019t appear to be quarterback indifference, either. Rodgers consistently referenced the need<\/a> to get Freiermuth more involved, but the targets rarely materialized. He received more than five just once.<\/p>\n His 2024 production under Smith makes his 2025 numbers all the more confounding. Freiermuth maintained his steady stat line two years ago, 65 receptions for 653 yards and seven touchdowns, but fell out of favor after the team traded for Jonnu Smith. A point DeFabo illustrated by one moment during the season.<\/p>\n \u201cI remember sitting there at practice one day, and Pat Freiermuth went to go in to run a play. They basically grabbed him by the back of the jersey and pulled him out and pushed Jonnu Smith in. Which really just illustrated how those two guys played a very similar role in the offense.\u201d<\/p>\n While the roles may have been similar, Arthur Smith clearly aimed to get Jonnu on the field. The two had a deep relationship beginning in Tennessee, followed by a year together in Atlanta. Pittsburgh acquired him as part of the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade last year. Jonnu Smith blocked Freiermuth\u2019s snaps and assumed the pass-catching role, but struggled to find chemistry with Rodgers. It wasn\u2019t until the very end of the season that Freiermuth leapfrogged Smith in playing time.<\/p>\n Arthur Smith\u2019s focus on getting \u201chis guy\u201d into the lineup may have been among his biggest flaws. He capped the team\u2019s highest-paid and best pass-catching tight end, who put up strong production under Smith the year before. Freiermuth took the high road, never publicly complaining about his role in-season, but vented frustration after the year.<\/a><\/p>\n With both Smiths gone, Freiermuth should have more success under Mike McCarthy, even knowing the Steelers\u2019 offense will run fewer two- and three-tight-end sets.<\/p>\n \u201cThere absolutely still will be a role for both those tight ends. Because also they\u2019re both pretty talented and worth getting the ball to and worth utilizing,\u201d DeFabo said.<\/p>\n Assuming good health, Freiermuth\u2019s numbers could look similar to seasons before 2025. Michael Pittman Jr. and Germie Bernard give Pittsburgh multiple targets in the pass game that may siphon away looks from Freiermuth, but even a 55-catch, 600-yard, and five-touchdown season would be a welcome sight and bounce-back year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the surface, losing offensive coordinator Arthur Smith might appear negative for players like Pat Freiermuth. After all,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":661959,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[3791,7145,1325,44817,349,37918,99,3795],"class_list":["post-661958","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-93-7-the-fan","tag-arthur-smith","tag-jonnu-smith","tag-mike-defabo","tag-nfl","tag-pat-freiermuth","tag-sports","tag-trending"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661958","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661958"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661958\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/661959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}