New Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth has some big shoes to fill, a void the team has been trying to take care of since Heath Miller retired at the end of the 2015 season.
Just in case Freiermuth wasn't aware of that, the second-round pick of the Steelers last week got a special message on Twitter to remind him.
A message from #HEEEATH to @pat_fry5 💪 pic.twitter.com/oIfWeM3EsE
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) May 1, 2021
This isn't signing Ladarius Green or Eric Ebron, trading for Vance McDonald or using a fifth-round draft pick on Zach Gentry. The Steelers made Freiermuth their highest-drafted tight end since taking Miller in the first round (30th overall) in 2005 for a reason.
They wanted the next Miller, a player who is going to hold down the position for the next decade.
"It means a lot," Freiermuth said. "Having Heath Miller reach out to me on social media and stuff like that, it means a lot knowing the footsteps I have to follow, the standard he set."
Miller was beloved both by fans and in the organization for his no-nonsense, workman-like approach to the game. He wasn't a player who pounded his chest or screamed for attention. He just went about his business, finishing his career with 592 receptions for 6,569 yards and 45 touchdowns.
That's the 10th-most in NFL history for a tight end, though he's quickly slipping on that list due to the influx of pure pass-catching tight ends -- overgrown wide receivers -- in the league now.
Few of the tight ends ahead of Miller on the all-time receptions list were asked to block as much as he was during his career. That's one of the things the Steelers loved about Freiermuth. They saw him as a throwback at the position, a player capable of lining up in line and blocking, or splitting out wide and getting open down the field.
"He will be kind of a throwback tight end because he can play the position and do some multiple things," Steelers tight end coach Alfredo Roberts said of the former Penn State star. "You can flex him out. His positional flexibility is going to give us a chance to do a lot of different things and a lot of different sets with the guys that are already here."
Pairing with a pure receiving tight end such as Ebron won't be anything new for Freiermuth, either. He served in that role as a freshman in 2018 when the Nittany Lions also had Mike Gesicki, who, like Ebron, is not the most physical of tight ends.
Freiermuth caught 26 passes for 368 yards and eight touchdowns that season while also serving as the team's primary blocking tight end.
"If they tell me to block the whole game, I’m going to do it to the best of my ability," Freiermuth said. "I take pride in whatever I do in the game. I’ve worked everything in my training. I’ve worked footwork. I’ve worked strikes. I take pride in being an all-around tight end. I think I need to fine tune my run blocking. I’m excited to go out and show what I can do."
As evidenced by those eight TD catches in his first season, he's a big, steady target in the red zone. Of his 92 receptions in 29 college games, 16 went for touchdowns.
At 6-foot-5, 258 pounds, Freiermuth is an imposing figure near the goal line. But he also has a sixth-sense for knowing what to do in tight quarters.
"At the goal line and in the red zone, it’s more detail-oriented," he told me. "I think I’m very detailed down there because there’s not a lot of space. I kind of understand that area and understand what defenses are trying to do. I think it’s a knack for getting open and finding that ball."
The production and willingness to do whatever was asked of him endeared Freiermuth to his teammates and coaches at tight end, perhaps the same way it will do so with Steelers fans.
He was voted a team captain as a true sophomore and again as a junior. Only quarterback Christian Hackenburg in 2014 had received that honor as a true sophomore before.
"To this day, that’s the biggest honor I’ve ever gotten, being a two-time captain at Penn State, having that respect from the guys in the locker room to be the second-youngest captain at Penn State," Freiermuth told me. "It means a lot. The players trusted me and the coaches trusted me. That’s kind of how I am, being a leader out on the field. That’s probably my biggest accomplishment at school I would say."
The next will be getting his own chant in the stadium from fans when he catches the ball. That used to be reserved for Miller, who would elicit a resounding "HEATH!" every time he had a catch.
"PAT!" does have much of a ring to it, but maybe "MUTH!" would do.
That "HEATH!" chant was about all of the recognition Miller ever got. Despite his stellar career, he made the Pro Bowl just twice. He'll never garner enough votes for enshrinement into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
But, like the man in whose footsteps he'll walk, Freiermuth sounds like he's OK with that.
"I’m confident. I’m not going to come out and say, ‘Oh, I’m going to break every record there is.’ I’m not like that," he said. "I’m going to come in there and compete and focus on every day and find one thing I can get better at every single day. That’s kind of what I did at Penn State, finding one thing each day that I could get better at."
MORE STEELERS
• With the draft now in the books, you can expect the next order of business for the Steelers to be signing T.J. Watt to a long-term extension. But don't expect anything to get done on that soon, with a target of training camp being more realistic. There really isn't a big hurry right now. The Steelers are under the salary cap and will need to start the process of team building as soon as possible. Up next will be a rookie mini-camp, likely next weekend. -- Lolley
• One of the hot new things in the NFL now is giving players contracts with voidable years to lessen the cap hit by creating dummy years over which to spread a signing bonus. The Steelers did that with Ben Roethlisberger and JuJu Smith-Schuster this year. I've been informed those players still count in the compensatory pick process if their contract voids and they sign somewhere else the following season according to a source with excellent knowledge of the salary cap. So, if Smith-Schuster leaves the Steelers after this season, he'll count in the Steelers' compensatory pick formula for 2023. The compensatory period for 2022 is now over. It appears the Steelers will get an additional third-round pick for the loss of Bud Dupree and an extra fifth-round pick for losing Matt Feiler. -- Lolley
PENGUINS
• The Penguins are resigned to losing a good player to Seattle in the expansion draft that will stock the Kraken's roster this summer. They have two options for how to construct their protected list, and figure to go with the one that allows them to keep seven forwards, three defensemen and a goaltender from being eligible to be claimed. The precise makeup of their list won't be known for a while (and probably hasn't been finalized yet), but it's safe to assume Tristan Jarry will be the goalie they protect. That means Casey DeSmith will be exposed, and his presence could be intriguing to Seattle GM Ron Francis and his staff because he's a reliable veteran who accepts being in a backup role but could fill in as a No. 1 if needed. Something to keep in mind while the Kraken is assembling its club is that it won't necessarily be selecting the most talented player from each club, which means that each of Seattle's choices shouldn't be viewed in isolation, but as one piece of a big personnel puzzle. The Kraken's front office surely will do some mock drafts before the real one, but until the lists of available players are official, Seattle can only make educated projections about who it might be able to get in the draft. -- Dave Molinari
• Putting together the Penguins' protected list is just one of the tasks looming for GM Ron Hextall. And while he figures to have the final say on all personnel decisions, it's safe to assume Hextall will solicit -- maybe even demand -- input from the likes of assistant GM Patrik Allvin and director of player personnel Chris Pryor. And he won't object if their perspectives on a player or issue are not the same as his own. "I don't want a bunch of yes-men around me," Hextall said. "I want guys who tell me what they think then, in the end, you gather all the information and make a decision." -- Molinari
• Mike Sullivan might be doing his best work as coach of the Penguins in 2020-21, which is no small feat considering he won Stanley Cups in each of his first two seasons behind their bench. Keeping a team whose lineup has been shredded by injuries the way the Penguins' has in contention for a division title is quite a statement on the performance Sullivan and his staff have turned in over the past few months. But perhaps the most striking thing about what he has done is not any tactical wrinkle he has introduced or an inspired player combination he put together, but the simple fact that despite being coach of this team since mid-December, 2015, Sullivan still is able to get his message through to his players. That might not sound like much, until you consider that NHL coaches tend to have a shelf life just slightly longer than that of an overly ripe peach. Even the most accomplished ones tend to get tuned out after a few years, which is why there is so much turnover in those jobs. To this point, though, Sullivan has managed to keep his players' attention, and that has worked out pretty well for all concerned. -- Molinari
PIRATES
• As part of Major League Baseball’s takeover of the minors, teams have to make a number of renovations to be extended a new affiliation deal. Fortunately for the affiliates, those changes don’t have to come for a couple years because of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Major League Baseball understands what having no games and no revenues since September of 2019 [means],” Altoona Curve general manager Derek Martin told DK Pittsburgh Sports. “But there are things that need to be done that starts before the 2023 season.” In Altoona, for example, the Curve will have to expand their weight room, add dining and commissary areas for both the Curve and their visitors, pad the outfield walls, add a female locker room (more teams are hiring women coaches and front office staff, though the Pirates currently have none) and increase internet bandwidth. There are general benchmarks for all teams to reach to improve minor-league players' quality of life. -- Alex Stumpf
• The Curve received some much-needed financial assistance from the Pirates since they used PNG Field as their alternate training site. “They pitched in and helped us on our utility bills and helped us to cover some of our staff salaries,” Martin said. “That really helped us out.” The Curve were very willing to host the Pirates again as an alternate training site, and while the Pirates explored that option, they ultimately chose to use three different facilities – PNC Park, Heinz Field and Pitt’s Charles L. Cost Field. The reason why is the Pirates wanted to make sure the Curve could prepare for their regular season rather than just playing host. -- Stumpf
• The Pirates’ team batting average is up five points from last year (.225), but it still would be the second-worst mark for the franchise since the start of the modern era in 1900. They aren’t the only team struggling to string hits together this year. It’s a pitcher’s league again. At the moment, the league has a collective .233 batting average, even lower than the legendary year of the pitcher in 1968 (.237). The league’s collective OPS is .702, which while on the low side and the worst league mark since 2014, it is hardly an outlier. Some are blaming the new ball, claiming it’s creating extra spin or velocity. While there has been a slight increase in those metrics, it’s very similar to what we’ve seen the last few years. The strikeout is running this league, and batting averages can’t be fixed with just outlawing shifts or re-juicing the ball. -- Stumpf