It’s so early it’s hardly meaningful, but it seems like there might be a connection between Russell Wilson and Pat Freiermuth. The tight end is looking like he might be the new quarterback’s favorite target.
“It’s hard to not notice the connection that Wilson and Pat Freiermuth had,” write Mark Kaboly, the Steelers beat writer for The Athletic. “The two had a throwing session in San Diego earlier in the spring, which might have helped. But I couldn’t tell you how many times Wilson and Freiermuth connected over three days.”
I’ll take that as a good sign. The Steelers don’t really have a proven, meat-and-potatoes receiver. George Pickens has shown the ability to make specular downfield catches as an outside guy, but it’s up in the air whether he can be a traditional No. 1 receiver. And they don’t have much else at wide receiver. Rookie Roman Wilson might start. The other options are nominal veterans – Calvin Austin, Van Jefferson, Quez Watkins.
The big-picture numbers aren’t great. Arthur Smith’s offense in Atlanta last year ranked next-to-last in passing. He has a history of using tight ends extensively, but he’s usually using multiple players at the position. On a typical Smith offense, there will be multiple tight ends catching 2-4 touchdowns.
Smith was an offensive coordinator in Tennessee for two years, and he was a head coach in Atlanta for three. Those teams had two top-15 tight ends (Kyle Pitts went for 1,026 yards as a rookie, and he was the 13th-most productive tight end last year using PPR scoring.
| ARTHUR SMITH'S TIGHT ENDS (2019-23) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2021 | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 110 | 68 | 1026 | 15.1 | 1 | 176.6 | 6 |
| 2023 | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 90 | 53 | 667 | 12.6 | 3 | 137.3 | 13 |
| 2020 | Jonnu Smith, Ten. | 65 | 41 | 448 | 10.9 | 8 | 140.2 | 16 |
| 2023 | Jonnu Smith, Atl. | 70 | 50 | 582 | 11.6 | 3 | 126.2 | 17 |
| 2019 | Jonnu Smith, Ten. | 44 | 35 | 439 | 12.5 | 3 | 104.7 | 20 |
| 2020 | Anthony Firkser, Ten. | 53 | 39 | 387 | 9.9 | 1 | 83.7 | 25 |
| 2022 | Kyle Pitts, Atl. | 59 | 28 | 356 | 12.7 | 2 | 75.6 | 34 |
| 2021 | Hayden Hurst, Atl. | 31 | 26 | 221 | 8.5 | 3 | 66.1 | 36 |
| 2019 | Delanie Walker, Ten. | 31 | 21 | 215 | 10.2 | 2 | 54.5 | 43 |
| 2022 | MyCole Pruitt, Atl. | 21 | 16 | 150 | 9.4 | 4 | 55.0 | 45 |
| 2019 | Anthony Firkser, Ten. | 24 | 14 | 204 | 14.6 | 1 | 40.4 | 49 |
| 2020 | MyCole Pruitt, Ten. | 8 | 5 | 49 | 9.8 | 2 | 27.9 | 67 |
| 2023 | MyCole Pruitt, Atl. | 12 | 9 | 110 | 12.2 | 1 | 26.0 | 68 |
| 2021 | Lee Smith, Atl. | 11 | 9 | 65 | 7.2 | 1 | 21.5 | 69 |
| 2020 | Geoff Swaim, Ten. | 12 | 9 | 83 | 9.2 | 1 | 23.3 | 70 |
| 2019 | MyCole Pruitt, Ten. | 8 | 6 | 90 | 15.0 | 1 | 21.0 | 72 |
| 2022 | Anthony Firkser, Atl. | 13 | 9 | 100 | 11.1 | 0 | 19.0 | 82 |
| 2022 | Parker Hesse, Atl. | 11 | 9 | 89 | 9.9 | 0 | 17.9 | 84 |
| 2021 | Parker Hesse, Atl. | 6 | 5 | 43 | 8.6 | 0 | 9.3 | 89 |
| 2023 | John FitzPatrick, Atl. | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12.0 | 0 | 2.2 | 106 |
| 2023 | Tucker Fisk, Atl. | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9.0 | 0 | 1.9 | 107 |
Russell Wilson’s history with tight ends has been even worse. He’s been starting for 12 years, and he’s had only two tight ends that have ranked higher than 20th in production using PPR scoring.
So while Freiermuth caught a few balls in a practice, I’m thinking he’s much more likely to wind up in the teens rather than being a top-10 player at his position.
| RUSSELL WILSON'S TIGHT ENDS (2012-23) | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Player | Tgt | Rec | Yds | Avg | TD | PPR | Rk |
| 2016 | Jimmy Graham, Sea. | 95 | 65 | 923 | 14.2 | 6 | 193.3 | 4 |
| 2017 | Jimmy Graham, Sea. | 96 | 57 | 520 | 9.1 | 10 | 171.0 | 7 |
| 2021 | Gerald Everett, Sea. | 63 | 48 | 478 | 10.0 | 4 | 121.8 | 20 |
| 2015 | Jimmy Graham, Sea. | 74 | 48 | 605 | 12.6 | 2 | 120.5 | 20 |
| 2019 | Jacob Hollister, Sea. | 59 | 41 | 349 | 8.5 | 3 | 93.9 | 23 |
| 2013 | Zach Miller, Sea. | 56 | 33 | 387 | 11.7 | 5 | 101.7 | 25 |
| 2014 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 40 | 22 | 362 | 16.5 | 3 | 76.2 | 28 |
| 2022 | Greg Dulcich, Den. | 55 | 33 | 411 | 12.5 | 2 | 86.1 | 30 |
| 2018 | Nick Vannett, Sea. | 43 | 29 | 269 | 9.3 | 3 | 73.9 | 30 |
| 2012 | Zach Miller, Sea. | 53 | 38 | 396 | 10.4 | 3 | 95.6 | 30 |
| 2019 | Will Dissly, Sea. | 27 | 23 | 262 | 11.4 | 4 | 73.9 | 37 |
| 2023 | Adam Trautman, Den. | 35 | 22 | 204 | 9.3 | 3 | 60.4 | 39 |
| 2012 | Anthony McCoy, Sea. | 28 | 18 | 291 | 16.2 | 3 | 65.1 | 39 |
| 2020 | Jacob Hollister, Sea. | 40 | 25 | 209 | 8.4 | 3 | 65.9 | 40 |
| 2017 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 22 | 15 | 153 | 10.2 | 4 | 54.3 | 41 |
| 2020 | Will Dissly, Sea. | 29 | 24 | 251 | 10.5 | 2 | 61.1 | 43 |
| 2018 | Ed Dickson, Sea. | 13 | 12 | 143 | 11.9 | 3 | 45.2 | 46 |
| 2020 | Greg Olsen, Sea. | 37 | 24 | 239 | 10.0 | 1 | 53.9 | 46 |
| 2015 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 26 | 17 | 213 | 12.5 | 1 | 44.3 | 46 |
| 2013 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 28 | 20 | 272 | 13.6 | 1 | 53.2 | 48 |
| 2016 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 21 | 15 | 129 | 8.6 | 2 | 39.9 | 49 |
| 2014 | Cooper Helfet, Sea. | 24 | 12 | 185 | 15.4 | 2 | 42.5 | 50 |
| 2021 | Will Dissly, Sea. | 26 | 21 | 231 | 11.0 | 1 | 50.1 | 51 |
| 2018 | Will Dissly, Sea. | 14 | 8 | 156 | 19.5 | 2 | 35.6 | 58 |
| 2022 | Eric Saubert, Den. | 24 | 15 | 148 | 9.9 | 1 | 35.8 | 60 |
| 2014 | Tony Moeaki, Sea. | 13 | 8 | 134 | 16.8 | 1 | 27.4 | 60 |
| 2017 | Nick Vannett, Sea. | 15 | 12 | 124 | 10.3 | 1 | 30.4 | 61 |
| 2015 | Cooper Helfet, Sea. | 22 | 13 | 130 | 10.0 | 0 | 26.0 | 64 |
| 2022 | Eric Tomlinson, Den. | 13 | 9 | 79 | 8.8 | 2 | 28.9 | 67 |
| 2022 | Albert Okwuegbunam, Den. | 18 | 10 | 95 | 9.5 | 1 | 25.5 | 71 |
| 2023 | Lucas Krull, Den. | 14 | 8 | 95 | 11.9 | 1 | 23.5 | 72 |
| 2013 | Kellen Davis, Sea. | 4 | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 1 | 12.2 | 75 |
| 2014 | Zach Miller, Sea. | 7 | 6 | 76 | 12.7 | 0 | 13.6 | 78 |
| 2019 | Luke Willson, Sea. | 10 | 8 | 79 | 9.9 | 0 | 15.9 | 82 |
| 2022 | Andrew Beck, Den. | 11 | 5 | 69 | 13.8 | 0 | 11.9 | 89 |
| 2021 | Colby Parkinson, Sea. | 8 | 5 | 33 | 6.6 | 0 | 8.3 | 91 |
| 2016 | Nick Vannett, Sea. | 4 | 3 | 32 | 10.7 | 0 | 6.2 | 94 |
| 2016 | Brandon Williams, Sea. | 3 | 2 | 36 | 18.0 | 0 | 5.6 | 95 |
| 2023 | Nate Adkins, Den. | 5 | 4 | 22 | 5.5 | 0 | 6.2 | 96 |
| 2023 | Greg Dulcich, Den. | 4 | 3 | 25 | 8.3 | 0 | 5.5 | 97 |
| 2023 | Chris Manhertz, Den. | 4 | 2 | 16 | 8.0 | 0 | 3.6 | 102 |
| 2020 | Colby Parkinson, Sea. | 2 | 2 | 16 | 8.0 | 0 | 3.6 | 102 |
| 2018 | Tyrone Swoopes, Sea. | 1 | 1 | 23 | 23.0 | 0 | 3.3 | 111 |
| 2019 | Tyrone Swoopes, Sea. | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5.0 | 0 | 1.5 | 112 |
—Ian Allan