PITTSBURGH -- After Pat Freiermuth erupted for two touchdowns against the Detroit Lions in a preseason game, Ben Roethlisberger tried to tamp down some of the praise for the Pittsburgh Steelers’ second-round draft pick.
Not because Freiermuth didn’t earn it, but because the quarterback wanted to keep one of his newest offensive weapons under wraps.
“Let’s not talk about it too much,” Ben Roethlisberger said with a laugh in August. “He works hard. He’s a Steeler. He reminds me of another tight end we’ve had here before.”
And even as Roethlisberger continues to jokingly minimize Freiermuth, the rookie tight end enters Sunday’s regular season meeting with the Lions (1 p.m. ET, Fox) as a credible scoring threat with three touchdowns in the last two games and an increased target share in the absence of wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster.
“He makes combat catches,” coach Mike Tomlin said Tuesday. “He makes the tough catch seem somewhat routine. His hand-eye and his body control are exceptional for a bigger body guy, a tight end-type guy. He's still young and growing in a lot of ways, on and off the field.”
Roethlisberger was out with his wife when he learned the Steelers selected the Penn State product in the NFL Draft. Until that moment, he didn’t know anything about Freiermuth. Less than a minute later, he got a text that excited him about his team’s latest addition.
“I had no idea who Pat was,” Roethlisberger said. “And probably 15, 20, 30 seconds later I got a text from B.A. [Bruce Arians] that said, ‘He’s the closest thing to Heath Miller I’ve ever seen. You’ll love this kid.’ That was enough for me.”
Miller retired with franchise records for receptions, yards and touchdowns for a tight end. He was considered a solid teammate and someone Roethlisberger could depend on over the middle.
Roethlisberger didn’t waste any time building a connection with Freiermuth, testing his range with purposefully errant throws in his earliest practices with the rookie.
“The first time in OTAs, minicamp he was throwing it all over the place,” Freiermuth said. “And I was like, ‘Am I doing something wrong?’ [Eric] Ebron and Zach [Gentry] were like, ‘He does this to see where your range is,’ and all that stuff. It helped me a lot.”
The unconventional preparation paid off in that preseason Detroit game when Freiermuth hauled in a pass rifled to the back end zone, snagging it away from outside linebacker Jalen Reeves-Maybin while also keeping his feet inbounds.
“We worked that a lot,” Roethlisberger said. “You watch practice, I try not to throw good balls all the time. It sounds crazy, but I want to see what they’re capable of doing.
Ben Roethlisberger & Pat Freiermuth (10-yd TD)
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) November 9, 2021
Freiermuth had just 0.5 yards of separation from #22 Kindle Vildor when the ball arrived, Roethlisberger's smallest window on a TD since Week 9, 2016 (AB 23-yd TD)
🔹 Completion Probability: 25.4%#StatThat | Powered by @awscloud pic.twitter.com/KcOLe6gcMG
“I’m sure when rookies, guys come in here, they’re like, ‘Ben’s not very accurate,’ but it’s intentional. I’ve thrown that ball to him dozens of times in practice, so he was ready for it, and he made the rest happen.”
For Freiermuth, the key to making those eyebrow-raising plays, like the preseason catch and his second touchdown against the Bears when he went over the top of cornerback Kindle Vildor to snatch the ball away, comes down to detail-oriented preparation.
“I feel like there’s so much detail down there [in the red zone], and I’m such a detail-oriented guy that maybe some person that’s great in the open field lacks that detail down there because the field is smaller,” Freiermuth said. “I understand coverage more down there and kind of understand what I need to do to get open and score a touchdown.”
A red zone machine at Penn State with no dropped passes in the area during his three-year collegiate career, Freiermuth credits his high school coach -- and cousin -- Pat Foley with helping him fall in love with the minutiae of the game during his two seasons at the Brooks School in Andover, Massachusetts. Once he started coaching Freiermuth as a linebacker and tight end in high school, Foley knew his ability to take full advantage of every opportunity would help slingshot him to the next level.
“He was on the defensive side of the ball,” Foley said. “He was rushing the passer, he came off, sacked the quarterback, caused a fumble and picked it up himself and went in for a touchdown. It’s just one of those plays where you realize early on, wow, when those opportunities present themselves, he’s going to do all of those things to make the whole play, not just maybe pick up the ball or just sack the quarterback. He’s going to get the whole thing, everything he can get out of it.”
That work ethic, coupled with his easygoing personality, quickly endeared Freiermuth to his teammates. A Penn State product on a team filled with Big Ten rivals such as Cam Heyward (Ohio State) and Gentry (Michigan), Freiermuth is often on the receiving end of jokes about his alma mater, like Heyward noting after the Steelers’ win in Cleveland that Freiermuth doesn’t often get a win in the state of Ohio.
Honor to finally meet the 🐐 #HEEEEEEEAAATH https://t.co/xlgOvnTITX
— Pat Freiermuth (@pat_fry5) November 9, 2021
And, of course, Roethlisberger still takes his shots when there’s an opportunity.
“We always say, ‘If a defender’s back is to the quarterback then we have to win,’” Roethlisberger said after Freiermuth’s touchdown in Cleveland. “I just tried to give him a chance, and Pat proves again that he can be reliable. It was a pretty good play. I’m going to be careful not to give him too many compliments.”
Why hold back on the praise?
“Just teasing Pat,” Roethlisberger said. “He's a good guy. He's finally learned how to get two feet in the back of the end zone.”
Two and a half months later, those comparisons to Miller, that other Steelers tight end Roethlisberger mentioned in August, are as evident as ever.
On Monday, Freiermuth turned in his most Heath-esque performance yet with Miller at Heinz Field for the Monday night matchup with the Bears.
“He got to meet Heath before the game,” Roethlisberger said. “Pat came up to me, I think in the fourth quarter, and asked if I could ask Heath to come to every game. Maybe he’s trying to impress Heath. We’ll take it.”