2025 was a rough season for Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth. After what was a career-best season in 2024 where he caught a career-high 65 passes and seven touchdowns, the Penn State product saw his time on the field take a significant hit.
Freiermuth played in just 51 percent of offensive snaps, by far the lowest number of his career, and his 41 catches were his lowest total in a season in which he played at least 16 games. For comparison, Jonnu Smith played in 52 percent of snaps, as offensive coordinator
Arthur Smith seemed to be unable to help himself from putting his longtime human pacifier on the field, despite the lack of production.
In a year where there are a lot of eyes on Freiermuth expecting him to bounce back, there may not have been a better hire for him specifically than Mike McCarthy.
How Mike McCarthy will help Pat Freiermuth
From 2022-24, few teams utilized tight ends in the passing game as much, or as efficiently, as the Dallas Cowboys under the leadership of McCarthy. In that span, Dallas had at least one tight end that ranked in the top 10 in targets per route run among all tight ends to run at least 50 routes.
In 2022, both Dalton Schultz and Jake Ferguson tied for seventh in targets per route run, per Sumer Sports. In 2023 and 2024, Ferguson ranked seventh in both seasons. Additionally, Freiermuth has proven that when he is given a quality amount of targets, he is incredibly efficient.
In 2022, he had a target share of 18.81 percent and ranked sixth in EPA among all tight ends. And despite ranking 37th in target share among tight ends in 2025, Freiermuth finished 17th in yards per route run and 21st in total EPA among 97 qualified tight ends.
Freiermuth is a proven commodity at the position. We know what he’s capable of, and so do the Steelers – it’s why they gave him a four-year, $48.4 million. Even in a down season in 2025, he ranked eighth in catch rate over expected among qualified tight ends and 10th in EPA per target. With he and Darnell Washington the unquestioned top two tight ends, and no Smith or Connor Heyward in the rotation to meaninglessly take snaps away from No. 88, we should see the Pat Freiermuth we had grown custom to seeing getting a higher target share and returning to form in 2026.
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