Steelers draft: Pat Freiermuth is not the tight end Pittsburgh needs

Pat Freiermuth is a solid player, but here’s why the Steelers should go a different route when it comes to the tight end position in the NFL Draft. 

When you look at the Steelers roster since the end of last season, a lot has changed – and not for the better. Pittsburgh lost a number of notable players this year including Bud Dupree, Mike Hilton, Steven Nelson, and Matt Feiler. They also lost Maurkice Pouncey to retirement, and it appears offensive tackle Alejandro Villanueva is unlikely to return as well.

There are a plethora of positions on the team that are less talented than they were just a year ago. Tight end is one of them. While the Steelers were already in need of a tight end overall, this position might be the worst it has been since before the Heath Miller era.

Vance McDonald was a very solid player for Pittsburgh in 2018, but he wasn’t the same over the past two seasons. Still, his retirement leaves a gaping hole on the depth chart. Currently, Eric Ebron is the only tight end on the team with any sort of meaningful game experience, and the depth behind him with essentially camp-body players like Zach Gentry, Kevin Rader, and Dax Raymond simply isn’t good enough.

For most of the offseason, Steelers fans have been raving about Penn State tight end, Pat Freiermuth. At 6’5” and 251 pounds, Freiermuth certainly has the frame to be a traditional in-line tight end, and many have drawn comparisons to former Pittsburgh tight end, Heath Miller. But is that really the type of tight end the Steelers need?

Pat Freiermuth may not be what the team needs at TE?

I’m not denying in any way that Pat Freiermuth couldn’t instantly become the best tight end on the Steelers. This might speak more to my opinion of Eric Ebron than anything else. However, I also don’t think that he’s the prospect that everyone is hyping him up to be.

I don’t get the ‘Baby Gronk’ nickname. I can see his physicality flash at times, but from an athletic standpoint, Freiermuth is nothing special. Despite his stats over the past three seasons, the big tight end doesn’t have an established route tree and much of his production came from finding the soft spot in the zone or from blown coverage. This isn’t to say that he can’t win in other ways, but it is a bit concerning.

In addition, Freiermuth did no athletic testing this offseason, and testing as a below-average athlete could have changed some opinions on him. According to NFL Draft Scout, Freiermuth was projected to run as low as a 4.86 in the 40-yard dash, and you can tell that he doesn’t have a lot of speed on film.

Is there a better alternative?

To be quite honest, I think a player like Notre Dame’s Tommy Tremble could be much closer to what the Steelers need. Tremble is a violent blocker who can move around the formation and get to the second level. At about 6’3 1/2” and 241 pounds, he’s not nearly as big as Freiermuth; however, he;’s a much better athlete and you can really see it on film.

According to his Relative Athletic Score, Tremble tested as an 89th percentile athlete with a 4.65 40-yard dash, a 36.5” vertical, and 10’2” broad jump. Tremble didn’t have much production at Notre Dame, but he projects as a much better receiver at the next level when he sees more targets. With his violent skill set as a blocker and the ability to wear multiple hats for an offense, I think a player like Tremble could be a much more versatile tool for offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

I can certainly see Pat Freiermuth being a very solid tight end at the next level, but I don’t seem to like him as much as most of the draft media. Perhaps he’s not the tight end the Steelers need