Mike's Beer Bar War Room: Freiermuth's key for unlocking offense

The Steelers' tight end group is fascinating, and not just because Pat Freiermuth went bonkers in Cincinnati this past week. 

Although that certainly doesn’t hurt. 

For anyone living on the moon, Freiermuth was targeted 11 times against the Bengals and caught nine passes for 120 yards. Not only was he the best player on the field and the designed focal point of the Steelers' offense in that game, but also by EPA, he presented the most production of any pass catcher (not just tight ends, but any pass catcher) in the entire NFL in Week 12.

The Steelers made a statement with Freiermuth down the middle of the field on the very first play of the game. Think that was an accident? Of course not. It wasn’t anything overly special, but it caught Cincinnati off guard as this was something they had seen very little on film. 

Freiermuth was awesome. But you know what? There is a very strong case to be made that Freiermuth was the Steelers' best offensive player in 2022, as well. 

In 2023, Freiermuth was injured in the first quarter of the first game of the season with a chest injury against San Francisco. If you recall, he was in and out of that game. Then in Week 4 against Houston, Freiermuth suffered a hamstring injury after catching three balls for just seven yards. He was put on injured reserve, not to return until last week’s game in Cleveland. 

Before this past Sunday in Cincinnati, Freiermuth had been targeted just 13 times and averaged a measly 10.6 receiving yards per game. He hadn’t received more than a 14.3% target share in any game all season. He ran just 13 routes and played just 33 snaps against Cleveland as he got back up to speed. Freiermuth was being targeted on just 7.7% of his routes before the game against the Bengals. 

In Cincinnati, he was targeted on 44% of his routes. Freiermuth averaged an amazing 4.8 yards per route run in that game. For context, if a wide receiver (let alone a tight end) is over 2.0 yards per route run for the season, that is Pro Bowl caliber production when broken down to the lowest common denominator. 

And the Steelers' tight end room as a whole had just 213 receiving yards (21.3 per game) from the tight end position all season going into the Bengals game. Against Cincinnati, Kenny Pickett was 12 of 14 for 141 when targeting his tight ends. That accounted for more than half of Pickett’s passing production. On Sunday, Freiermuth played 42 snaps, Darnell Washington was on the field for 37 plays, Connor Heyward for 24 and Rodney Williams for 4 plays. Williams didn’t run a route, but Freiermuth was out on a pattern on 25 occasions. Washington ran a route 13 times and Heyward ran eight routes against the Bengals. 

In this most recent game, the Steelers used a lot more 12 Personnel (one running back, two tight ends) and even 13 Personnel (one running back, three tight ends), something that had been nearly nonexistent before Sunday. Going into that game, Pittsburgh had employed 11 Personnel (one running back, one tight end) for 79% of their offensive snaps. Only four teams used any personnel grouping more. League average usage of 11 Personnel is 62.3%. 

They diversified. Why? Well, again for those up there on the moon, you might have heard that the Steelers made a change at offensive coordinator. Under Matt Canada, not only was Freiermuth barely used this season, but the Steelers were also at the very bottom of the league in passing attempts in the middle of the field. To be fair to Canada, there were plenty of open receivers in this area of the field and Pickett didn’t pull the trigger for whatever reason. 

But also, to be fair to Canada, Freiermuth was not used well this season during his tenure. Some of that surely had to do with the injuries, but while Freiermuth is an okay blocker, he is much more of a receiver than a blocker and Canada consistently asked Freiermuth to block defensive ends early in year, often one-on-one on run plays, which is something that is just not in Freiermuth’s wheelhouse. Far too often on passing plays, Freiermuth would chip an edge defender then meander a few steps past the line of scrimmage, turn around and possibly present a dump off option for Pickett. That is misuse of what this player has proven to be capable of down the field, and even on the perimeter. 

This past week, Freiermuth was aligned in the slot or out wide 22 times compared to the 20 snaps he aligned inline. In those first five games with Canada in charge, those numbers were 129 inline and 54 detached. Even more telling was that Freiermuth had aligned out wide a total of eight times in those first five games he was active for compared to eight times alone against the Bengals. 

Here is a third level designed big play to Freiermuth against the Bengals' safeties, the weakness of their defense. This is from an inline position, which of course is very comfortable for Freiermuth, but expect more of him operating out of the slot and out wide. 

But what also is very important to know here is that the Bengals are awful defending the tight end position. Entering last week’s game, Cincinnati was allowing the sixth-most receptions (5.8) and third-most receiving yards (63.5) to tight ends. So, with Freiermuth fully healthy and the Bengals' problems in this regard, highlighting him in this matchup very well could have finally been in the cards no matter who was in charge of the offense. That is something we will never know. 

But any way you cut it, Freiermuth absolutely must be a featured player in the Steelers' passing game. Putting on film what they did on Sunday will make this passing game much harder to prepare for going forward. 

But what about more 12 and 13 Personnel? It would be a good idea. The Steelers don’t have a fantastic third wide out right now. While playing 13 Personnel puts either Diontae Johnson or George Pickens on the bench, that grouping does present plenty of problems. 

Why, you ask? First off, Washington and Heyward are both tight ends. They both report to the Steelers' tight end meeting room and are coached by Alfredo Roberts, the tight end coach. But other than that, there aren’t many similarities in body types, skill sets or playing style between Washington and Heyward. Washington is a true power inline player that is coming off his best game as a pro, and Heyward is a jack-of-all-trades, Kyle Juszczyk-type that excels in space and as a route runner. Freiermuth is a fine combination of both. 

This is Heyward’s first career touchdown in his rookie season. In this instance, the Steelers align Heyward out of the slot, but take notice of the quick fake he makes to the outside while stemming his route, then immediately shifting gears to get deep downfield as well as showing off some excellent ball skills. 

How should a defense defend the Steelers' 13 Personnel package? If they come out in their base 3-4 or 4-3 with four defensive backs on the field, Pittsburgh should immediately detach Freiermuth and Heyward. At least one will draw linebacker coverage. The Steelers could even go empty in this situation and put Najee Harris, or more likely Jaylen Warren, in a receiver position on the line of scrimmage. Most defenses aren’t equipped to cover that fivesome with just four defensive backs on the field. 

If the opponent counters 13 Personnel with nickel (five defensive backs) or dime (six defensive backs), the Steelers would be salivating at running the football against lighter defensive personnel with Freiermuth and Heyward often blocking safeties. 

This isn’t to suggest that the Steelers should keep Johnson and Pickens on the bench and go with a heavy dosage of 13 Personnel. But, it is a great usage of their offensive skill position talent and there is a strong argument to be made that Freiermuth (of course), Washington and Heyward all deserve a great deal of playing time. At minimum, a higher dosage of 12 Personnel (like they did after the Chase Claypool trade last year) with at least a consistent usage of 13 Personnel makes this offense noticeably more difficult to play against. 

And by all means, Freiermuth’s usage (or close to it) this past Sunday absolutely must be here to stay. This offense is evolving.