Steelers Get Warning on New TE Jonnu Smith

Many NFL pundits considered the Pittsburgh Steelers a match made in heaven for tight end Jonnu Smith. The Miami Dolphins wanted to dump the veteran’s salary, and he possesses previous experience with Steelers offensive coordinator Arthur Smith.

Despite that, though, ESPN’s Seth Walder was one analyst that didn’t like the team’s blockbuster trade where it acquired the veteran tight end. In a recent offseason grades article, Walder sent a warning on expectations for Jonnu Smith entering 2025.

“Yes, Pittsburgh got an Arthur Smith favorite in Jonnu Smith, but I’d caution overrating that part,” Walder wrote. “Jonnu Smith is a good YAC player coming off a career-best season in which he recorded 884 receiving yards, but we shouldn’t ignore the previous seven seasons of his career (including some with Coach Smith) that were not on that level.”

The tight end, who will turn 30 in August, had a career-best 88 catches for 884 receiving yards and eight touchdowns for the Dolphins in 2024. He didn’t have more than 50 catches or reached 600 receiving yards in a single season before last year.

Jonnu Smith Expectations With Steelers in 2025

There’s honestly about as much not to like about Smith with the Steelers as there is to like.

The good news is the tight end knows the Steelers offensive coordinator. But continuity didn’t matter much last season for the veteran playmaker. The 2024 campaign was the tight end’s first with the Dolphins, and he made the Pro Bowl for the first time.

In four of his first seven NFL seasons, he played for Arthur Smith in some capacity (Smith was the tight end’s position coach, offensive coordinator and head coach). Despite that continuity, Jonnu Smith never made the Pro Bowl before 2024.

The tight end’s success may have come last season in Miami because of the Dolphins’ two vertical deep threats Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. The Steelers have D.K. Metcalf, but no other threat as potent as Hill or Waddle.

The Steelers may have hopes Smith will help in that area and be an outside receiving threat at times this season.

But if Smith needs opposing defenses to be focused on multiple other pass catchers to find room in opponent’s secondaries, that might not come as easy for Smith in Pittsburgh as it did in Miami.

Steelers TE Depth Entering NFL Training Camp

Walder appears not to like the idea of Smith repeating his statistics from last season. While that prediction makes sense, Smith doesn’t need an 800-yard campaign to be successful in the Steelers offense.

Pittsburgh will likely try to deploy a run-first offense again as it did in 2024. Smith also has multiple tight ends he will be working with in Pittsburgh.

Pat Freiermuth likely remains the team’s top tight end. The organization also still has high hopes for Darnell Washington.

Connor Heyward and JJ Galbreath are two other tight ends that could be depth contributors as well.

During his most recent season with Arthur Smith, Jonnu Smith had 50 catches for 582 yards and three touchdowns. It’s difficult envisioning the Steelers not being pleased with that kind of production if the tight end had a similar stat line in 2025.