Pat Freiermuth

The Pittsburgh Steelers took another significant hit to their pass catching group week 4 in their blowout loss to the Houston Texans. Starting TE Pat Freiermuth left the game with a hamstring injury and did not return. Reports said he could miss the next 2-3 weeks with the injury, and he has been officially ruled out for week 5s rivalry matchup Vs the Baltimore Ravens.

Pat Freiermuth joins Diontae Johnson in the training room with hamstring injuries leaving behind George Pickens with all the target share he can possibly receive. Freiermuth has been a disappointment to many fantasy managers to start the year, as he has been in and out of games and hasn’t earned the targets we were used to seeing from him.

This new hamstring injury now makes Pat less than desirable to roster in all redraft formats. The lack of usage from Pat Freiermuth early on does not indicate an increased usage for any of the other Steelers TEs aiming to replace him. This injury simply condenses the target share, and the biggest beneficiary besides George Pickens will be the RBs who will get even more work in the short area passing game and in the red zone where Pat despite the decreased overall usage still had a penchant for scoring TDs. Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren both have pass catching ability for this struggling Pittsburgh offense and will get increased usage. The TEs in Pittsburgh are not exciting but it’s at least good to know that Rookie TE Darnell Washington played more passing snaps(11) in week 4 than Connor Heyward(0), do with that information what you will.