Pittsburgh Steelers TE Pat Freiermuth has been out since week 5 with a hamstring injury. He practiced Thursday before his week 7 game and suffered a set back reaggravating his hamstring injury. The setback lands him on the IR.

Hamstring strains have hit the NFL hard this year. Cooper Kupp dealt with a aggravation of a prior hamstring injury and was forced on IR. Now we get a similar outcome for Freiermuth after his set back in Thursdays practice. He is now going to miss at least 4 weeks with the injury.

After the first hamstring injury the recommendation was to move on from Freiermuth in fantasy, nothing has changed. If he wasn’t dropped already do it now. Diontae Johnson is expected to make his return from the IR in week 7 coming off his own hamstring injury, and he will be reclaiming his spot as the top target earner in the offense. Freiermuth even upon his return (whenever that may be) will be hard pressed to earn targets in a still struggling Pittsburgh offense. Before the Week 6 bye the Steelers utilized Connor Heyward and Darnell Washington at the TE position. Washington the rookie TE earned 2 targets catching zero, and Connor Heyward operated as the lead TE earning 4 targets catching 3 passes for 23 yards. Neither TE has been encouraging even with Freiermuth banged up all year, and with Diontae back do not expect that to change. This Pittsburgh offense coming out of a bye still has a lot to prove before any of their offensive players can be trusted with confidence in lineups.