Pat Freiermuth Camp Update — August 16: A Much Bigger Piece, Says The Athletic

Pat Freiermuth has been a much bigger piece of the offense than he was last year. That is Mike DeFabo of The Athletic, reporting back on August fifth that Freiermuth is featured in Mike McCarthy's West Coast-style install, especially in the two-minute drill and over the middle of the field, with a 23 yard catch in one two-minute period as the receipt, as relayed by Josh Carney at Steelers Depot. Within this week's window itself, Freiermuth went unmentioned in the practice notes and the opener recaps, so the DeFabo report stands as the freshest substantive read.

The June preview described Freiermuth as the most predictable player in the file: five seasons, and his per-game scoring has never left a three-point band, roughly five and a half at the floor and eight at the peak. We said the band exists because the targets never stayed, about three and a half a game last year, 11 percent of Pittsburgh's looks, in a room split three ways. The core claim was that he catches at a quality rate whenever the ball arrives, and the one force that could finally move the band was the new situation: Jonnu Smith's 54 targets released in March and unassigned, and a play-caller in McCarthy with a long, documented history of feeding tight ends short and intermediate volume. The June watch item was the snap split with Darnell Washington, which the Post-Gazette beat expected to be close.

The camp reporting is the upside branch of that read taking shape. Featured in the two-minute drill is exactly where McCarthy offenses have historically manufactured tight-end volume, and over the middle is where Aaron Rodgers has spent two decades throwing to the position. It is one report, it is practice charting rather than game usage, and Freiermuth's absence from the opener notes means we have no live-snap confirmation yet. The Washington snap question also remains completely unaddressed in this window.

Does the June read hold? COMPLICATED, leaning up. The band thesis assumed the targets would stay scarce, and the first detailed look inside the new offense says the design intends otherwise. Design is not volume, and August is not September, but this is the specific evidence the June preview said to look for.

The checkable things for next week: whether Freiermuth plays Friday against the Jets and where his targets come from, and any charting of the 12-personnel and snap split with Darnell Washington, still the number that decides whether the band finally moves. We'll check next Sunday.

_Data via nflverse._