{"id":876703,"date":"2025-10-10T22:16:35","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T03:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/10\/they-are-valuable-members-arthur-smith-still-has-big-plans-for-jonnu-smith-and-pat-freiermuth\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T22:16:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T03:16:35","slug":"they-are-valuable-members-arthur-smith-still-has-big-plans-for-jonnu-smith-and-pat-freiermuth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/10\/10\/they-are-valuable-members-arthur-smith-still-has-big-plans-for-jonnu-smith-and-pat-freiermuth\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018They Are Valuable Members:\u2019 Arthur Smith Still Has Big Plans For Jonnu Smith And Pat Freiermuth"},"content":{"rendered":"

Football <\/p>\n

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Blink and you would\u2019ve missed tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith playing in the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings. Playing scant snaps and hardly seeing the football, OC Arthur Smith says that won\u2019t be the plan every week. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Smith said their involvement will ebb and flow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes game-to-game that can take away,\u201d Smith said of shifting tight end usage via a team-provided transcript. \u201cJonnu and Pat\u2019s snaps were down, they are valuable members. It\u2019s just the way the game went, it worked. But it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s going to work this week. We got a different challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n

Combined, Freiermuth and Smith logged just 28 snaps against Minnesota. That was fewer than Darnell Washington\u2019s total of 48 while sixth offensive lineman Spencer Anderson logged nearly 20 himself. Freiermuth and Smith\u2019s snap counts were the lowest of their career. In the passing game, Freiermuth wasn\u2019t targeted while Smith caught two short passes early in the game before being shut out the rest of the way.<\/p>\n

Through the first month, neither player is coming close to their production of a season ago. Freiermuth had consistently hauled in 60-plus receptions in years he\u2019s been fully healthy. Smith had a Pro Bowl campaign in 2024. Now, his numbers look more like a running back.<\/p>\n

During his Tuesday press conference, Tomlin cited the need<\/a> to block big 4-3 defensive ends that required bigger people like Washington and Anderson. He hinted that strategy would continue against the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals. Pittsburgh establishing the running game is first and foremost to the offense\u2019s success. Without it, play-action is less viable and less frequent, and too much is put on Aaron Rodgers\u2019 plate.<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh\u2019s usage against Cleveland could be telling. If Smith unveils a similar game plan that features more of Washington and Anderson and less of Freiermuth and Smith, it\u2019s the start of a trend that may not reverse.<\/p>\n

But odds are, the team has used the bye to brainstorm ways to get Freiermuth and Smith more chances. Their snap counts weren\u2019t alarmingly low the first three weeks and will likely return closer to \u201cnormal\u201d against Cleveland. One two-minute drive could serve as a quick way to get them on the field and the ball. When their number is called, both will need to make plays.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read More<\/a> Alex Kozora<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Blink and you would\u2019ve missed tight ends Pat Freiermuth and Jonnu Smith playing in the Pittsburgh Steelers\u2019 Week 4 game against the Minnesota Vikings. Playing scant snaps and hardly seeing the football, OC Arthur Smith says that won\u2019t be the plan every week. Speaking to reporters Thursday, Smith said their involvement will ebb and flow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":876704,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27046,3790,952],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-876703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-they","category-football","category-smith"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876704"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}