Why the NFL should be afraid of Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth

Ebron’s drop off

Not everyone was impressed by Eric Ebron when the Steelers signed him and did not think him to be a great tight end by any means.  Even when the season 2020perhps one of his chief complaints was he dropped too many passes. Perhaps he only had 56 receptions out of 91 targets; however, that is still a 61.5 percentage. Not horrible by any means.

Even then, Ebron had 10 yards per reception, meaning  30 of his 56 receptions were for a first down. So over half of his receptions netted the Steelers extended their drives by at least four downs. So despite only having five touchdowns, he certainly helped extend the Steelers’ overall time of possession.

Even Ebron’s 558 yards surpassed Heath Miller’s total single-season reception yardage in six out of his ten seasons. Plus, his five touchdowns were more than Miller caught in six of his seasons as well. So there is no denying he played a key role in the Steelers’ offense in 2020.

In 2021, Ebron’s stat production has dropped off the chart.  So far, Ebron has one catch for 19.0 yards while targeted seven times, giving him a 14.3 %; if this continues, he’s on pace to only have 5.66 receptions for the season for perhaps 95 yards.

Sure, you can blame in part his low output to the quality of Pittsburgh’s performance. However, let’s look at Pat Freiermuth’s numbers.