Pat Freiermuth is becoming more of a leader ahead of his fourth NFL season, and that’s something he said he’s been working on. Freiermuth said he hasn’t been himself on the field by being quiet, and he wants to help bring the young offense together this season, something he said has been missing over the past few years. During an interview with Richie Walsh on an episode of Training Camp All-Access, Freiermuth said he’s taking on a leadership role after the offense has been “missing” a leader since Ben Roethlisberger retired.
“I’m trying to get out of my shell a little bit. I think the first couple years I was a little quiet, not really kind of myself, but now just kind of growing up. We’re a young offense and just trying to bring the team together on the offensive side of the ball, and just trying to organize things,” he said. “I think when Ben left, obviously that was our main guy on offense, our leader who we looked up to. Missing that for the past couple years. So just trying to get guys like Najee [Harris], myself, the new quarterbacks, just guys bringing each other up, hanging out, getting to know each other outside of football.”
Freiermuth and Harris becoming better leaders this season has been evident in training camp practices, but it’s quite interesting to hear from Freiermuth that there was a leadership void. Two years ago, Harris was named the offensive captain, and last season it was Kenny Pickett. From the sounds of it, Pickett wasn’t as good of a leader privately as his teammates said publicly, and the offense didn’t have a real voice to turn to in the locker room.
It might not have been so much a case of Pickett not being a good leader as it was that he couldn’t be as good of a leader as Roethlisberger was. Roethlisberger was obviously a veteran who knew what it took to win in the NFL, whereas Pickett was a young quarterback thrust into the starting job early in his rookie season. For guys like Freiermuth, who also played with Roethlisberger, it might have been a downgrade in the overall leadership, which made it tough to really view Pickett as a leader.
But the past is the past. Now the Steelers will look to move forward with an offensive leadership core that includes Russell Wilson, Justin Fields and now ideally Freiermuth and Harris as well. You can never have too many leaders in the locker room, and hopefully, that leadership group can lift up this young offense and help it turn into one that can bring the Steelers some playoff success.
