With the Pittsburgh Steelers on an early Week 5 bye, Mike Tomlin and company are back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, Omar Khan and the front office can take a step back and evaluate their offseason additions through the quarter mark of the season. While DK Metcalf and Jalen Ramsey have been pivotal to the team's early success, Jonnu Smith has not been.
Smith, who was acquired in the blockbuster trade that sent Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Miami Dolphins with Ramsey coming to Pittsburgh, has not been everything as advertised. The veteran tight end was coming off a Pro Bowl season with the Dolphins, in which he recorded 88 receptions for 884 yards and 8 touchdowns.
Unfortunately, Smith's efficiency couldn't be worse in Pittsburgh.
While Jonnu has caught 14 of 16 targets, he's done essentially nothing with his opportunities in the receiving game, netting just 71 total yards with one touchdown reception. Smith's success 43.8 percent success rate is 20 percent lower than his season numbers in Miami last year (63.1 percent), while his 4.4 yards per target in the passing game is on track to be a career low, per Pro Football Reference.
The reasoning is baffling. In Smith's final year in Atlanta with Arthur Smith, he was both productive and efficient—recording 50 receptions for 582 yards at 8.3 yards per target. Then, last season with the Dolphins, Smith had the best season of his career. But suddenly, the long-time tight end has become a total non-factor in the receiving game for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
This is a problem Mike Tomlin must address during the bye week.
The Pittsburgh Steelers need to fix TE Jonnu Smith or send him packing
After trading for Jonnu Smith during the summer, the Pittsburgh Steelers gave the journeyman tight end a pay raise—increasing his 2025 cap number to just over $12 million in terms of salary and guaranteed money, via Over The Cap. When ranked among NFL tight ends, this is a top-10 contract in terms of average annual earnings.
But that's only half of the problem.
Pat Freiermuth, who also has disappointing numbers through the first four weeks of the season, accounts for another $12 million against the Steelers' salary cap in 2025. Yet the two tight ends have combined for just 5.2 yards per target with an 85.2 passer rating when quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws in their direction.
This is an incredibly steep price tag for such little production and efficiency. What's bizarre is that Smith has had efficient years with coach Arthur Smith in the past, both in Tennessee and Atlanta. Sadly, he's on pace to be one of the least efficient tight ends in the NFL this season in terms of yards per target.
Mike Tomlin and Arthur Smith need to put their heads together to figure out how to get Jonnu back on track. Instead of trying to engineer touches for Smith through scripted screen passes, they should look to replicate Mike McDaniel's usage of Smith in Miami last season—getting him on quick slants, drags, and post routes.
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Smith is now 30 years old, but he still moves well with the ball in his hands and is capable of chewing up yards after the catch. If the Pittsburgh Steelers are unwilling to alter the plan for Jonnu Smith's usage, there's no sense in keeping him on the roster at his pricetag.
Additionally, the Steelers are finding out how successful they can be when tight end Darnell Washington plays the vast majority of offensive snaps. And because Smith and Freiermuth largely mirror each other in terms of skill sets, they could cut into each other's offensive snaps and production as the season marches on.
There are plenty of issues that must be addressed during the Steelers' bye week, but Mike Tomlin can't ignore the elephant in the room: Jonnu Smith has been a complete non-factor.