Mike McCarthy’s arrival is framed as a turning point for Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth

Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth is coming off a season that, by the standards of his 2024 breakthrough, felt like a step backward. Yahoo Sports revisited the arc of his first real peak, pointing to 2024 as a career-best year when he caught 65 passes and scored seven touchdowns. In 2025, the publication reports that his time on the field dropped significantly, leaving him to look for a clearer path back to consistent involvement.

That shift is where Yahoo Sports’ main point comes in. The article argues that offensive leadership from Mike McCarthy is “exactly who Pat Freiermuth needed” as he tries to bounce back. The framing is straightforward: when a tight end’s usage changes, the problem is often less about talent and more about how an offense wants to get him the ball, particularly in the middle of the field and in scoring situations.

Freiermuth has been a natural fit for the kind of tight end work that creates short and medium gains, but his impact depends on whether the quarterback trusts him early in the progression and whether the scheme produces the matchup. In 2024, the production suggested that the timing, coverage, and play design all lined up. The contrast with 2025, which Yahoo describes as rough and defined by less on-field time, underscores how quickly that alignment can disappear when an offense’s rhythm changes.

For Pittsburgh, this matters beyond one player’s statistics. The Steelers have typically leaned on a balanced passing approach in which the tight end can help keep defenses honest, forcing safeties to account for seam routes and forcing linebackers to respect crossing routes. When a tight end is in the right spots at the right time, it can also expand the offense’s run-pass options, because formations that isolate a linebacker or bait zone coverage can open up both the short passing game and the backside running lanes.

The key question going into the next phase is what “bounce back” looks like in practical terms. Yahoo’s argument is less about promising a return to 2024’s exact output and more about the idea that a new offensive voice can correct the usage problems that limited Freiermuth in 2025. If Freiermuth can get back to being a frequent target, it also changes the protection and route distribution for the rest of the offense, since defenses often shift coverage responsibilities when the tight end is clearly part of the plan.

There is still a limitation to what can be stated from this reporting alone. The Yahoo Sports piece provides the broad storyline and the contrast between 2024’s career-best numbers and 2025’s reduced role, but it does not, in the available excerpt, spell out specific roster changes, contract details, or particular schematic implementations tied to McCarthy. That means the “exactly who” claim should be treated as a forward-looking evaluation rather than a verified before-and-after measurement.

What to watch next is whether Pittsburgh’s offseason plans translate into a tighter identity for Freiermuth’s weekly snap and target workload. Even small changes in how often he is used on early downs, how frequently he is matched up in the seam or the red zone, and how often he appears in third-down progression routes can indicate whether the coaching change is producing the kind of role clarity that his 2024 season suggested he was capable of sustaining.

If the on-field usage begins to resemble his 2024 production profile again, Freiermuth would benefit first, but the Steelers’ offense would benefit broadly. Tight end involvement can stabilize passing games, create reliable first reads, and make play-action routes and intermediate throws more available. If the role does not improve, then the 2025 pattern may simply reflect a longer-term mismatch between the player’s strengths and what the offense wants at tight end. Either way, the next stretch will determine whether the optimism from Yahoo Sports becomes a measurable trend.