Jonnu Smith

Career Stats

Year	Team	GP	Rec	Yards	TD
Career		4	—	—	—
2025		4	—	—	—

Updated May 25, 2026

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

The C+ Contract Value Index on Jonnu Smith's deal stems from how the cap hit lines up against on-field output. Smith's rookie scale contract carries a $1.54M average annual value across four years, a modest commitment that insulates Pittsburgh's cap sheet—but the 2025 season stats of 6 tackles across 4 games reveal a player who barely factored into the offense, let alone justified a draft investment at pick 97 in the third round. For a tight end in year one, that production floor is well below league expectation, and the Steelers' subsequent decision to release him and free up $7M in cap space reads as an organizational admission that the original evaluation misfired badly. At 22 years old and still on a rookie deal, Smith had the runway and financial scaffolding to develop—yet the team opted to cut bait entirely rather than ride out the contract's remaining years, suggesting the on-field fit and trajectory were sufficiently concerning to outweigh the sunk cost. The media consensus frames his departure as a necessary reset for Pittsburgh rather than any close call, with coverage treating the release as an obvious cost-saving measure that also removes a non-contributor from the roster. Unless Smith lands with a new organization and demonstrates meaningful production at the professional level, his CVI grade of C+ will remain an artifact of a rookie deal that never got a real chance to pay dividends.

Contracts in the Same Value Band

Other same-position deals the Contract Value Index also places in the C band — a quick read on where Jonnu's contract sits relative to comparable money.

Performance Analysis4/16 Games

Jonnu Smith has played 4 career games, which is below the 16-game minimum required for a performance grade. Once Jonnu reaches 16 career games, the system will automatically generate a performance grade based on position-specific statistics.

Fan Sentiment

Jonnu Smith's public perception has bottomed out completely, and the sentiment surrounding his time in Pittsburgh carries an unambiguous F-grade verdict from both media and fanbase alike. The dominant narrative driving that collapse is the Steelers' decision to release him after just one season, with multiple reports zeroing in on the $7M in salary cap savings as the most damning indictment of his tenure — that number isn't a footnote, it's a headline, because it signals the organization prioritized financial relief over keeping a player who was supposed to be a featured offensive weapon. His on-field performance offers no counter-argument, as a D+ performance grade confirms the production simply wasn't there to justify the investment, and his 2025 season stat line of just 6 tackles across 4 games tells the story of a player who barely registered on the field. The release headlines have been uniformly brutal, framing Smith's exit not as a mutual parting but as an organizational admission that the front office badly miscalculated, with the accompanying talk of targeting younger, cheaper tight end options in the upcoming draft reading as a direct rebuke of the Smith era. What makes the narrative particularly corrosive is the careerStage context — this wasn't a veteran on a merciful farewell contract, and the cautionary tale framing has calcified quickly in the offseason window with 125 days until the regular season begins. The bottom line is that Smith's Pittsburgh chapter closes as one of the more embarrassing personnel misfires in recent Steelers memory, and nothing in the current media cycle suggests any rehabilitation of that story is coming.