Pat Freiermuth Was Almost a Jaguar; Talks About his ‘Welcome to the NFL’ Moment in Cleveland

[Steeler Nation]

The Pittsburgh Steelers had been searching for a tight end for several years. The day Heath Miller retired in 2016, the Steelers lost a vital piece of the puzzle. Miller had been Ben Roethlisberger‘s security blanket since 2005, and it would take several failed attempts to replace him before they finally would find Pat Freiermuth.

The Steelers tried to replace Miller via the draft with Penn State product Jesse James, via trade when they acquired Vance McDonald from the San Francisco 49ers, and they even went against their normal practices and signed big name free agents Ladarius Green, and Eric Ebron.

James would develop into an average tight end, but leave when his rookie contract expired. Green continued to battle concussion issues that lingered from his time in San Diego. Ebron would prove to drop far too many passes to be Roethlisberger’s security blanket. McDonald was the closest the Steelers ever came, but injuries would keep McDonald off the field more often than anyone would hope, and he retired after the 2020 season to pursue other dreams.

The Steelers were high on Freiermuth and it’s believed that if Najee Harris wouldn’t of been available, the Steelers would’ve taken Freiermuth in the first round. His intangibles closely reflect Miller’s. He isn’t the polished blocker that Miller was, but he’s already progressed a ton after his rookie year.

The Steelers almost didn’t get a chance to draft him, though.

“I really thought I was gonna go to Jacksonville really with [tight ends coach Tyler Bowen],” he told Adam Breneman on his new podcast . “They called me and they were like, ‘hey, we’re gonna draft you at pick #45.'”

The Jaguars would instead select offensive tackle Walker Little from Stanford.

“So I was like, ‘alright, whatever,’ and then I thought I was gonna end up at Tennessee at 53. And then they didn’t call. I was like, ‘alright, this is ridiculous.’ So I shut my ringer off.”

“My phone started buzzing from Pittsburgh. I really thought it was like Bowers calling me. I had a new phone. And so I answered and it’s Mike Tomlin. I’m happy I didn’t go to Jacksonville.”

The Steelers went into Cleveland and stunned the home crowd​

Roethlisberger and the Steelers still remembered the playoff defeat from the season before as they headed to Cleveland for the first game of two in 2021. It was a sloppy game that featured kicker Chris Boswell being knocked out of the game on a fake field goal attempt. But the thing that Steelers fans remember most was the huge game winning reception that Freiermuth pulled in on fourth down from Roethlisberger.

PAT FREIERMUTH ON FOURTH DOWN FOR THE LEAD

pic.twitter.com/cVQwqAWpfJ

— PFF PIT Steelers (@PFF_Steelers) October 31, 2021

Freiermuth conceded that in Cleveland was when he realized he was finally in the NFL and not college any longer.

“I kind of started, like, I started clicking after like the Cleveland game, just kind of the first Cleveland game, just kind of going into a hostile environment like that experience,” Freiermuth continued. “That was my first real experience of, ‘these fans hate us.’ I think that’s the difference between NFL and college is the fans in college, they’re kind of like cheer for their team, we don’t really talk about anyone else. But in the NFL it’s like, they literally hate me.”

We’re looking forward to him continuing to break Cleveland Browns’ fans hearts for years to come.

WATCH THE FULL INTERVIEW HERE.

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