It appears the Pittsburgh Steelers offense will be fully healthy for the first time since Week 1 against the Cleveland Browns.
According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, Pittsburgh plans to activate tight end Pat Freiermuth before they board the bus to Cleveland this afternoon.
Freiermuth (hamstring), placed on injured reserve on Oct. 21, hasn’t played since Week 4 at Houston.
But what’s the point?
The ugly truth is that the offense wasn’t great before Freiermuth got hurt, and Matt Canada seems to have completely forgotten about the tight end position.
Freiermuth came off a career 732-yard, two-touchdown season in 2022, but just like the rest of the skill players, his numbers had taken a big hit no thanks to Kenny Pickett‘s regression.
Though he’d scored touchdowns in two of his four games, only one ended with more than 10 receiving yards (41 yards versus Las Vegas Raiders). Pittsburgh has 160 between their two other tight ends, Connor Heyward (137 yards) and Darnell Washington (23 yards).
Cleveland’s defense is ranked number one against tight ends. The only one to find any success against Cleveland was Mark Andrews, who managed 80 yards and two scores in Week 4.
The #Steelers plan to activate TE Pat Freiermuth from injured reserve before leaving for Cleveland today, per source. A boost for Pittsburgh’s offense on Sunday against the #Browns’ stout D. pic.twitter.com/C5MoO4guIN
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 18, 2023
