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The Pittsburgh Steelers may have themselves a new fantasy football stud on their hands, but more importantly, Pat Freiermuth proved in Saturday’s preseason game against the Detroit Lions that he could be a dangerous red zone threat.
With longtime Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger operating the offense, the hosts lit it up at Heinz Field, as Big Ben flashed some vintage form, and Freiermuth made his case for a larger role in his rookie campaign.
Roethlisberger connected with the second-round pick out of Penn State for a pair of first-half touchdowns. This could be the part of something truly special indeed.
On the first one, Big Ben froze the defense with his trademark pump fake and fired it into the end zone, where Freiermuth laid out and made an extremely impressive grab:
The next one was a dandy, too, as Freiermuth wisely got his hands up at the last possible second while being face guarded, and had the presence of mind to get both feed down before he went out of bounds:
Although Eric Ebron is already on the roster and has plenty of experience, not to mention reps with Roethlisberger under his belt, there’s no question Freiermuth flashed well enough to be a huge factor in the scoring zone.
Why is Freiermuth’s emergence such a massive deal? Well, one reason is because the Steelers finished dead-last in rushing offense last year. They didn’t have the luxury of pounding the rock in the red zone.
With Ebron, Chase Claypool and Freiermuth in the equation, there are multiple targets Roethlisberger could just loft the ball up to on 50-50 balls that are, in reality, going to be caught more often than not by Pittsburgh.
Had it been any other draft year, perhaps Freiermuth would’ve entered the NFL with more fanfare. He just happened to be in the same class as Atlanta Falcons No. 4 overall pick Kyle Pitts, who came out of Florida as arguably the most hyped tight end prospect of all-time.
Anyway, if Freiermuth continues to show out like this as a pass-catcher and can chip in as a blocker, he could far exceed any reasonable expectations that were set for him in 2021.
See our record prediction for the Steelers in our full breakdown of their schedule