{"id":944687,"date":"2026-07-13T19:39:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:39:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/944687\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T19:39:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T19:39:17","slug":"properly-feeding-pat-freiermuth-and-darnell-washington-will-challenge-mike-mccarthys-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/944687\/","title":{"rendered":"Properly Feeding Pat Freiermuth And Darnell Washington Will Challenge Mike McCarthy’s History"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers turned some heads earlier this offseason<\/a> when they signed TE Darnell Washington to a four-year extension. Obviously, Washington is beloved in Pittsburgh. It\u2019s not often you see a mountain of a man able to move people as a blocker and cause problems in the passing game.<\/p>\n

The biggest question is how the Steelers will deploy him and fellow TE Pat Freiermuth. Both players saw the field for over 50 percent of the offensive snaps last year. Washington set career-best marks in targets (43), catches (31), and yards (364) while also adding a touchdown. Freiermuth, on the other hand, had his second-worst marks in multiple categories, including targets (54), catches (41), and yards (486).<\/p>\n

What will happen this year? Under new head coach Mike McCarthy, the Steelers obviously like Darnell Washington. However, Pat Freiermuth has three seasons averaging over 10 yards per reception and two years with seven receiving touchdowns in his five-year career. The Steelers have two tight ends who can make positive impacts in the passing game. The Steelers should get them involved more. That will take pressure off the wide receivers, headlined by DK Metcalf and Michael Pittman Jr. It will also allow rookie WR Germie Bernard to take time adapting to the NFL.<\/p>\n

But will Mike McCarthy embrace throwing to two tight ends? Let\u2019s take a look at McCarthy\u2019s history. Below is a table showing the stats of Mike McCarthy\u2019s top two receiving tight ends each year with the Green Bay Packers and the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

The First 18 Years Of McCarthy\u2019s Top Two Receiving Tight Ends<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Mike McCarthy\u2019s 18 years as a head coach in the NFL, there have only been seven seasons where his top two tight ends have been targeted 30-plus times. In that same time period, the top two tight ends each caught 20-plus passes seven times. Digging deeper, two of those seasons were injury-related. Green Bay Packers TE Jermichael Finley suffered injuries that cost him much of 2010 and 2013 yet he still finished as the second-most targeted tight end on the team in those years.<\/p>\n

Across 18 years of coaching, Mike McCarthy has led five seasons where his top two tight ends played the majority of the season and were targeted 30-plus times while catching 20-plus passes.<\/p>\n

However, in McCarthy\u2019s last season as a head coach, he did exactly that. TE Jake Ferguson had 86 targets and 59 catches in 2024 with the Dallas Cowboys. TE Luke Schoonmaker had 36 targets and 27 catches. Perhaps McCarthy already began laying the groundwork for involving multiple tight ends in the passing game in Dallas.<\/p>\n

McCarthy also hinted that Darnell Washington\u2019s performance in the spring might be causing him to rethink<\/a> some of his offensive ideas, too. Will we see both Washington and Pat Freiermuth as offensive weapons this year?<\/p>\n

History argues no. Mike McCarthy may just decide to ignore his own historical offensive philosophy anyway. After all, it\u2019s not every year you get to coach a unicorn like Darnell Washington while also having a proven receiving threat on the same roster like Pat Freiermuth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers turned some heads earlier this offseason when they signed TE Darnell Washington to a four-year…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":909561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[457,7,7866,6,9073,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":["post-944687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-darnell-washington","tag-football","tag-mike-mccarthy","tag-nfl","tag-pat-freiermuth","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-steelers","tag-pittsburghsteelers","tag-steelers"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116914366977746891","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944687","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=944687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/944687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/909561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=944687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=944687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=944687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}