Steelers Now
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.
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.
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.
Dolphins TE Jonnu Smith led the NFL in receptions (17), yards (146) and first downs (7) generated on screen passes last season.
Slip screen in the red zone with Armstead and Brewer (who are both great athletes) leading the way out in front for a score on 3rd & long. pic.twitter.com/MC1ptlNusd
— Derrick (@Steelers_DB) June 7, 2025
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...
