Steelers A to Z: Veteran TE MyCole Pruitt arrives highly familiar with new OC Arthur Smith

Editor’s note: From now until the first practice of training camp at Saint Vincent College, TribLive is running through the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 90-man roster, looking at each player and assessing his outlook for the 2024 season. The breakdown will run in alphabetical order with at least two players each day between June 14 and July 25. Contract data courtesy spotrac.com.

TE MYCOLE PRUITT

Experience/age: 109 games over nine NFL seasons, 32

Contract status: $1.21 million cap hit on a one-year deal in 2024

The past: The Steelers are Pruitt’s sixth team since entering the NFL as a fifth-round pick out of Southern Illinois in 2015. At 6-foot-2, 258 pounds, he has remained in the league largely owed to a reputation for being a good blocker. But he also has displayed a proverbial nose for the end zone, by way of his 12 touchdowns among 96 targets and 71 catches.

Pruitt lasted a season and a half with the Minnesota Vikings, appeared in two late-season 2016 games for the Chicago Bears and (after a 10-day stint on the Buffalo Bills practice squad) one game for the 2017 Houston Texans before catching his big break when the Tennessee Titans signed him off the Houston practice squad when their starting tight end, Delanie Walker, suffered a season-ending injury during the 2018 opener. Pruitt would end up playing in each of the Titans’ games over the next two seasons. He’d also play 27 games over the next two seasons for Tennessee, after an offseason spent with the San Francisco 49ers. Pruitt landed with the Atlanta Falcons in 2022 and appeared in 30 of their games since.

TE1 MyCole Pruitt

Two great throws by Ridder on this drive pic.twitter.com/3tCJZxwNc2

— Miles Garrett (@MilesGarrettTV) December 3, 2023

2024 outlook: A common thread with Pruitt’s travels has been Arthur Smith, who was Tennessee’s tight ends coach when Pruitt first signed there. Smith was promoted to offensive coordinator for the 2019 and 2020 Titans when Pruitt was there, and he was the Falcons head coach the past two seasons. In that role, Smith called plays — as he will do beginning this season for the Steelers as their offensive coordinator. It’s easy to connect the dots on the one-year, $1.26 million contract the Steelers agreed to with Pruitt.

Pruitt has 71 catches for 748 yards in 109 NFL games and has never had more than 16 receptions or four touchdowns in a season. He joins a Steelers tight end corps that includes a clear alpha receiving threat in Pat Freiermuth and complements in Connor Heyward and big Darnell Washington. The latter, too, is most known for blocking, while Heyward has more of an H-back profile and last season was the Steelers’ most-deployed fullback.

Smith is known for heavy deployment of tight ends. It will interesting to see how he uses the Steelers’ contingent — especially in regards to a longtime acquaintance in Pruitt.