4 Steelers stars who will be wasted in Arthur Smith's offense

3. Pat Freiermuth, TE

Though injuries limited third-year tight end Pat Freiermuth to only 12 games in the 2023 season, it's hard not to be excited about the future of the Penn State product in the Steelers offense. In the 2022 season when he played 16 games, he hauled in 63 catches on 98 targets for 732 yards and two touchdowns after notching seven touchdowns the year prior.

If he can stay on the field, which there is only one data point from 2023 pointing to the idea that he can't, Freiermuth could be one of the more productive tight ends in the league. But even when he was healthy this year, one of the frustrations with the Matt Canada offense and even otherwise was his lack of usage, which is evidenced by him getting just 47 targets on the year.

We know that Arthur Smith is going to use his tight ends -- that's been a calling card of his offenses both in Tennessee and Atlanta. How he utilizes the tight ends in the passing game, however, has been the frustrating aspect of his stylings. We saw it most notably with Kyle Pitts and Jonnu Smith receiving nearly identical workloads this past season.

Freiermuth has shown the ability to be a clear-cut TE1 in the NFL and the Pittsburgh offense. Utilizing Connor Heyward more often or even bringing in a veteran -- perhaps the aforementioned Smith, who is a cap casualty candidate for the Falcons this offseason -- would be a mistake. But it's also something that Arthur Smith's track record suggests he would do when calling this offense.