Pat Freiermuth — Week 3: Direct Snap, Then Twenty-Two Yards
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 28
Freiermuth took a direct snap on third and one from the Pittsburgh 24 and gained the yard, then caught a 22-yarder on the next snap, and finished with 2 catches on 4 targets for 30 yards. Both of his targets after halftime were deep incompletions, in a 30–27 win over the Bengals.
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17 to 10, Steelers, three oh five left in the second quarter, third and one at the Pittsburgh 24. The snap went directly to Pat Freiermuth, who went up the middle for one yard and the first down. +0.4 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position. It was the second week in a row he took a direct snap on a short-yardage down and converted it; in Week 2 it was fourth and one. On the next snap Aaron Rodgers threw short left to him for 22 yards to the Pittsburgh 47, +0.9. The drive ended a few snaps later in an interception.
The line: four targets, two catches, 30 yards, one first down, −0.6 expected points on the four; one carry, one yard, one first down. The first catch was eight yards on first and 10 from the Pittsburgh 15, pushed out at the 23, on the same drive. Both second-half targets were deep and fell incomplete: 21 yards in the air on third and six from the Pittsburgh 41 in the third quarter, down three — Pittsburgh punted, and a roughing-the-kicker penalty on Cincinnati gave the ball back on a drive that ended in DK Metcalf's touchdown — and 18 yards in the air on first and 10 from the 36 with 11 21 left, down three.
Four targets tied Jaylen Warren and Darnell Washington, behind Roman Wilson's six and five each for Metcalf and Michael Pittman. Washington, the other tight end, turned his four into 67 yards, 47 of them on one catch in the fourth quarter.
Back in June the preview called Freiermuth a band player — five seasons of per-game scoring inside a narrow range, 3.6 targets a game last season — and made no call, with the snap split with Washington named as the thing to watch. Week 1 was five catches on five targets and a touchdown; Week 2 was five targets and four catches. Sunday was four targets and two catches. Three games: 14 targets, 11 catches, a hundred eight yards, one touchdown, +2 direct-snap carries that both converted. The target count has held a little above last year's pace; the catches thinned Sunday. Pittsburgh is at the Browns on Thursday the first.
_Data via nflverse._
When Pat Freiermuth's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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