“What’s the deal with Pat Freiermuth?”, I ask inquisitively, in my best Jerry Seinfeld voice.
I’m not the only one who is wondering that same question. Former Pittsburgh Steelers DL Chris Hoke posed the same question earlier this week, though in his own voice, during an appearance on 93.7 The Fan with Ron Cook and Joe Starkey. Indeed, he had some interesting things to say.
“I don’t understand what’s going on with Freiermuth and why he’s not getting the ball”, he said recently. “It just seems like he’s not into it. He’s not blocking well at the line of scrimmage. Part of the reason the Steelers are struggling to run the ball is because they can’t win on the edge. They’re not winning at the tight end position at the line of scrimmage and they’re getting knocked back”.
“Pat’s struggled blocking at the point of attack”, he added. “Turn the film on and you’ll see”.
He’s not wrong. While Freiermuth’s always been reasonably solid in very limited reps in pass protection, his work as a run blocker has always left something to be desired. He talks about improving in that area, particularly as an in-line blocker, every year, but we haven’t seen the improvement going into his third season.
“There’s clips that I want back”, he recently admitted, via Teresa Varley for the team’s website, “but so far I’ve put in a good sample size of my growth and development in the blocking game, especially inline. There’s certain plays I want back, everyone has that. But I think I’ve grown a lot in that realm so far”.
I can tell you exactly one of the clips he wants back. He probably even saw it on social media after we shared it, getting about half a million engagements as of the time of this writing. Let’s just say that whatever he was trying here, it didn’t work.
Now, is it fair to accuse him of not being invested? I think that’s a mistake that can be easily made due to his personality. He’s a very laid-back person, or so it seems, by nature, which can come off as indifference to some. He also isn’t necessarily the most compelling interview subject, often giving short, generic answers that don’t tell you very much. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t know very much or doesn’t care very much.
Some may even call into question Freiermuth saying earlier this week that he’s not overly concerned with the number of targets he gets. He was only targeted once in the last game. But is that indifference or is he just trying to take the attitude that he feels is best for the team?
All I know is that Freiermuth needs to play better all around, and the offense also needs to get him more involved in the passing game. The past two years have shown that he is capable of being a weapon as a receiver. With WR Diontae Johnson out, now would seem like the ideal opportunity.
