Bell: Should Steelers Trade for Jonnu Smith?
With the highly anticipated arrival of Aaron Rodgers, the Pittsburgh Steelers have their quarterback for the 2025 season. Now, the front office can continue working the phones in pursuit of another playmaker for him to throw the ball to. One name that garnered significant conversation of late is Miami Dolphins tight end Jonnu Smith, who played for Arthur Smith from 2017-2020 before the two briefly reunited once again in 2023. With that familiarity in mind, it’s left many wondering if he could be the missing piece for their offensive attack.Â
Smith, who turns 30-years old before the regular season, is coming off a career year under Mike McDaniel in which he registered 884 yards to go along with 8 touchdowns. This comes on the heels of him signing a two-year, $8M contract during free agency last cycle, a deal that he has since obviously outplayed. Multiple rumors have surfaced that the general manager Omar Khan has made an inquiry about his availability but the genesis of that interest is a bit cloudy based on the flip-flopping reporting.
Could this be agent driven with the Steelers being used as leverage for a payday or are the Steelers genuinely looking for another pass catching tight end?
Either way for the time being, it’s worth exploring whether the pairing actually makes sense.Â
Examining Jonnu Smith’s Skill Set
The first thing that comes to mind when watching Smith play is how dynamic he is with the ball in his hands as a runner. There’s a real argument to be made that he’s one of the best yards after catch creators at this position league wide and the numbers would speak to that effectiveness. His 5.9 YAC/reception ranked 12th among tight ends with at least 25 targets last season. Miami’s offense was thoughtful of ways to use him on screens with creative designs that would get him the ball in space. He can quickly transition, shows good acceleration and has good vision with the ability to make guys miss in the open field. It’s helpful to have these easy buttons in an offense to take stress of the quarterback.
Even as an eight-year veteran, Smith can still roll. The Dolphins would use this to their advantage by having run a lot of crossing routes off play-action with him stretching the field horizontally for them. He spent 46.0% of his snaps aligned in the slot and with most of his targets naturally coming over the middle of the field. Smith shows a quality understanding of zone coverages and an understanding of where the sticks are on third downs. The Dolphins scheme would utilize his speed on fast motion at the snap to give him a leverage advantage versus defenders. Their offense is heavily predicated on getting the ball out quick underneath, which makes him a good fit for their aerial attack. Smith also deserves recognition for having the best season of his career from a hands perspective.
For as useful as he can be through the air, his presence on the field does come at a price because he’s a liability as a blocker. He comes equipped with a very compact build at only 6-3, 248 pounds (30th%-tile) and because of that, he’s at a disadvantage with most matchups. If you go back to the 2023 film, Smith struggled immensely whenever he was asked to play on the line of scrimmage. EDGE rushers are able to access his frame with ease and reset the line of scrimmage because he’s not physical or strong enough to hold up at the point of attack. As the year went on, they tinkered with his assignments, with more off the ball responsibilities, but the struggles were still evident.
Mike McDaniel deserves credit for maximizing Smith’s potential as a receiver, taking Arthur Smith’s original vision by min/maxing his responsibility. But there was a cost associated with him playing as many snaps as he did. For starters, Miami had major tells from a tendency perspective. When he was on the field, the Dolphins threw the ball on 80% of the snaps and when they did run the football, they tried their best to limit his exposure to the run game, often by putting him on the weak side of the concept. There were still times where that was an issue, too.
Jonnu Smith’s Fit with the Steelers
The most important question as it relates to this hypothetical acquisition is whether Smith and Pat Freiermuth can co-exist in the same offense. It’s true that Pittsburgh’s offense is very multi-tight end oriented as they used 12 personnel on 27% of their plays last year and even used 13 personnel on 16% of their snaps. But not all tight ends are the same and that part of the discussion is what often gets lost in the conversation. From a blocking standpoint, Freiermuth is best classified as functional – someone that holds up just enough in line to play as the lone tight end in 11 personnel but truly does his best work in the slot as a receiver or as an off-ball tight end in heavier personnel looks.
As a general rule of thumb regardless of scheme, when an offense puts two tight ends on the field, one of them must be able to block an edge defender. Otherwise, you’re almost guaranteed to struggle to run the football efficiently and in turn, the offense becomes one dimensional. Without the threat of the run there, defensive coordinators will be elated to counter by taking a linebacker off the field and inserting another defensive back. Then once that happens, your extra tight end loses the advantage as a receiver that heavy formation looks are designed to generate. The game itself takes many different forms through different eras but one thing always remains the same: football is all about matchups.
That’s why Darnell Washington’s role on this unit is indeed important, despite not accumulating the box score stats that make fantasy football addicts happy. Because his blocking ability to handle in-line responsibilities as the Y opens up more advantageous opportunities for Freiermuth and most importantly keeps the Steelers offense balanced. For a ground-and-pound team that wants to dominate the line of scrimmage, taking Washington off the field is bound to have unintended consequences. The Georgia product took steps in the right direction last year, going from a pure blunt force instrument, to making noticeable strides from a technique perspective.
The goal of this style of offense is to create additional gaps, force defenses to get heavy and roll a safety down into the box. As a result, defenses often become static and predictable on the back end. That’s where you need two receivers who can take advantage of 1v1s opportunities outside. The coaching staff should feel comfortable with Metcalf’s ability to feast on those chances, but there’s not another proven option on the roster. That’s a real concern, but one that acquiring another move-tight end won’t be able to fix. He can be flexed out wide on occasion but he’s not someone that is capable of separating against starting caliber cornerbacks consistently.
Looking Ahead to 2025 (& Beyond)
Pittsburgh’s offense was highly volatile last season, but 12 personnel was where they were at their best. With Aaron Rodgers in the fold, the hope is that his quick trigger style of play will lead to less turn downs underneath and instead more touches for Freiermuth within the rhythm of the offense. Could they stand to get Washington a little bit more involved more off play-action, as well? Absolutely. Just because he has some limitations, doesn’t mean he’s not a very useful piece up front. If you need evidence of how the NFL is trending, go check out what blocking-only tight ends are making on the free agent market these days.
Because Freiermuth and Smith effectively play the same position in the offense and can’t be regularly deployed together, this is a trade that doesn’t really make much sense. The juice simply isn’t worth the squeeze. Trading what would likely be an early day three pick and subsequently handing out a contract extension for an older player that requires this much role catering is bad business, and that’s before taking into account that the Steelers aren’t likely to be contending for anything meaningful next fall anyways. If there’s a younger Z receiver out there up for grabs? By all means, have at it. Otherwise, this front office needs to be diligent in planning for the future.
Think big picture. Let the young ballers develop.