{"id":821054,"date":"2026-03-19T11:53:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:53:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821054\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T11:53:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T11:53:39","slug":"fittipaldo-forecasts-how-steelers-should-address-lack-of-tight-end-depth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/821054\/","title":{"rendered":"Fittipaldo Forecasts How Steelers Should Address Lack Of Tight End Depth"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Steelers suddenly lack depth at tight end after having too much of it, so what is the best way to address it going forward? Earlier in the offseason, Pittsburgh released Jonnu Smith, for whom they traded a year ago. Just this past week, free agent Connor Heyward signed with the Raiders<\/a> after four years here.<\/p>\n

While that leaves them with a strong one-two punch in Pat Freiermuth and Darnell Washington, the Steelers need more tight ends. Or more accurately, they need more viable, rosterable tight ends of whom they can be sure. Right now, the only other true tight end on the Steelers\u2019 roster is JJ Galbreath. A college free agent a year ago, many hoped he would be a sleeper to make the team. He didn\u2019t, but he\u2019s still around<\/a>, and now there\u2019s a lot more room. But they can\u2019t leave the room in the current state it\u2019s in, either.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know that they have to add a veteran before the draft\u201d, veteran Steelers beat writer Ray Fittipaldo said on the North Shore Drive podcast<\/a>. \u201cRight now, if it\u2019s not addressed, they\u2019re certainly in play for a tight end, say like, anywhere in the Round 3 to Round 4 range. They\u2019ve got five picks in Rounds 3 and 4\u201d.<\/p>\n

At long last, we know what the Steelers\u2019 draft picks will be<\/a>. They do indeed have three picks in the third round, including one from the George Pickens trade. The Steelers also earned third- and fourth-round compensatory picks from last year\u2019s free agent losses. All told, that leaves them with five selections between 76th overall and 135. Can the Steelers find their next tight end in that range of the draft?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a pretty good spot to get yourself a No. 3 tight end and a guy who has potential to move up and be a backup next season\u201d, Fittipaldo argued. And he said that the Steelers need to \u201csafeguard\u201d themselves at tight end via the draft in the event they can\u2019t extend Darnell Washington. That makes the heart of the draft a \u201cperfect\u201d time for the Steelers to draft another tight end. And it\u2019s been a while.<\/p>\n

Connor Heyward is the last tight end the Steelers have drafted, other than Darnell Washington in 2023. And he was never a true, traditional tight end. In fact, the Raiders apparently intend to use him as a fullback, so there you go. Either way, that was in the sixth round in 2022. Of course, they drafted a tight end three years in a row prior to the past two years.<\/p>\n

The Steelers gave up a fifth-round draft pick to add an arguably redundant tight end last year in Jonnu Smith. He came here as part of the trade that sent Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Dolphins for Jalen Ramsey. And there\u2019s a reason he\u2019s now gone<\/a>, arguably an addition by subtraction.<\/p>\n

But tight ends are more prone to injury, and thus missing games, than most positions. Arthur Smith isn\u2019t here anymore, but the Steelers certainly need to insulate themselves. That doesn\u2019t mean they can\u2019t accomplish that in free agency, but the draft is a strong option, too. A third tight end likely wouldn\u2019t play much this year if Freiermuth and Washington remain healthy, anyway.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Steelers suddenly lack depth at tight end after having too much of it, so what is the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":821055,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6,14427,57,7827,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-821054","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-nfl","10":"tag-north-shore-drive","11":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","12":"tag-ray-fittipaldo","13":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116255706496979156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821054","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=821054"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/821054\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/821055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=821054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=821054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=821054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}