RADIO
Pat Freiermuth is a fantasy football waiver wire pickup option for tight ends. Target him as a free agent add off waivers for Week 12 of the 2023 NFL season.
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ANALYSIS: Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth returned from injury with a tough matchup against the Browns in Week 11, where the offense couldn't get anything going. The Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada, who many believe was greatly holding the offense back.
Freiermuth has played in just four games this season and in two of them, he left early and finished with a 50% snap share in both games. Needless to say, most of his per-game averages are not the most accurate representation of who Freiermuth is. Since we essentially have two full games and two injury-shortened contests this season, I’d argue it’s more predictive to look at a larger sample. Such as in 2022 when Kenny Pickett was also under center for most of the year.
Freiermuth had a good, but not great route participation rate. However, 73% is good enough to be considered a weekly starter. His 19% target share is elite. There are only five tight ends with a higher target share this season. Using his per-game averages from 2022, his 17-game pace would be 104 targets, 66 receptions, and 779 yards. That’s a darn good tight end. That wasn’t a fluke either.
Even as a rookie, Freiermuth showed plenty of promise. He had 70 targets, 54 receptions, 444 yards, and 7 touchdowns. As far as rookie tight ends go, that’s pretty stinkin’ good. Then he followed that up with a very impressive second season. His 2023 season hasn’t been bad, contrary to what the stats show. It's just been riddled with injuries, but this is football, so that’s going to happen. We have two years' worth of data that says Freiermuth is a very good tight end vs. what essentially amounts to three games' worth of play this season. I’d suggest using the former.
If you’re streaming tight ends or lost Dallas Goedert or Darren Waller to injury, it makes sense to add Freiermuth. He’s eligible to come back from IR this week. Last year, his target share and targets per game both bested George Pickens. Pickett has a 7.1 intended air yards per attempt average. This is the ninth-lowest out of 33 qualifying quarterbacks. He doesn’t like to throw the ball downfield. For Freiermuth’s fantasy value, that’s a good thing. There’s nothing wrong with betting on Freiermuth’s talent. In fact, I encourage it.
He returned in Week 11 but played just 53% of the team's snaps. Considering his injury woes that should have been the expectation. Hopefully, with the fact that he managed to play without setbacks, his role should grow moving forward. Don't be alarmed by the low fantasy output this past weekend. The Browns have allowed the fewest points to quarterbacks and tight ends this season from Weeks 1-10. Even if Freiermuth was unlimited, he likely would have struggled in this matchup. If you lost Andrews are are unable to grab Likely, Freiermuth isn't the worst backup plan.
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