Eric Ebron, Pat Freiermuth have potential to head ‘dynamic’ Steelers tight corps
Pittsburgh Steelers tight ends coach Alfredo Roberts was unwilling to divulge the nickname he bestowed upon his position group when speaking with media earlier this week. A few hours later, his most outspoken pupil, Eric Ebron, was more than eager.
But for the more family-oriented outlets, Ebron needed to clean it up a bit.
“Bad (rear ends),” Ebron said before quickly apologizing and offering a more sanitized version.
“Bad Donkeys.”
Reinvigorated by the addition of a new unit coach and a high-round draft pick, the Steelers tight ends are out to provide a swift kick to the figurative backside of an offense that languished down the stretch last season.
“Can they be dynamic?” Roberts asked, rhetorically, about the tight ends duo of Ebron and rookie Pat Freiermuth. “With this quarterback, they have the ability to be, yes.”
Ebron’s combination of size (6-foot-4, 253 pounds) and speed (4.5 in the 40-yard dash at the 2014 combine) make him one of the NFL’s best athletes at tight end. Freiermuth (6-5, 258) was productive in college (16 touchdowns at Penn State) and has a high enough pedigree he was the second tight end picked in the April draft.
“Having those two players, along with (Kevin) Rader back and Zach (Gentry) in making … I made a joke the other day in the room, ‘Man, I might have a best job in football,’ ” Roberts said, “because of the way these guys are progressing and the way the guys are doing the work. No bad body language or anything. And coach Tomlin stresses (the expectations) he is putting on us.”
Roberts didn’t mention Matt Canada’s expectations, but the opinion of the new Steelers offensive coordinator is perhaps more important.
Last year in Randy Fichtner’s final season as coordinator, the Steelers ranked in the bottom half (17th) in throws targeted to tight ends (112). Ninety-one were to Ebron, which ranked fourth on the team. Vance McDonald retired during the offseason, prompting the Steelers to prioritize tight ends this offseason.
They ignored it in free agency but Freiermuth still was on the board late in Round 2 (55th overall).
Would “Baby Heath” work for Pat Freiermuth?
Because the Steelers rookie tight end isn’t a fan of being called “Baby Gronk.”
Via @C_AdamskiTribhttps://t.co/XdHMnNxBk0
— Tribune-ReviewSports (@TribSports) May 14, 2021
Through a week of training camp, Freiermuth has looked the part of a plug-and-play contributor.
“Man, I think for a rookie tight end, it’s extremely hard,” Ebron said, “and yet (Freiermuth) seems to be unfazed.”
Gentry, too, as a 6-foot-8 converted quarterback entering his third season, has appeared to take a step in his development as a receiver in camp. Rader, a Pine-Richland alumnus, endeared himself to Steelers coaches over the past two seasons because of his blocking and special teams abilities. Rader and Gentry could be quality Nos. 3-4 on the depth chart.
The Ebron/Freiermuth tandem, though, has the potential to wow as receiving threats. But can they perform the other primary function of their job description?
“Absolutely,” Ebron said. “I feel like that (blocking) was something that we were all terrible at last year, as you saw how low in the running game, period.”
The Steelers were last in the NFL in rushing yards.
“If you want to get paid and you want perform and you want to be amongst the best,” Ebron said, “you’ve got to be able to block. So that’s a pivotal part of our focus this year.”
Freiermuth gets it, too.
“I was drafted because I could do both,” Freiermuth said of receiving and blocking.
“I know that my job is to go out there and make catches, but it’s also to go out and block.”
The understated Freiermuth said the extroverted Ebron bonded over organized team activities and minicamp. Freiermuth
“We’re kind of, opposites attract,” Freiermuth said.
A pair of bad… donkeys.
“Tight ends, we should be bad (donkeys),” Ebron said. “We should be able to block bad-(donkey), we should be able to run bad-(donkey) routes, and we should be able to score on anybody in a bad-(donkey) way. And that’s the mantra we are going to take this year and that’s the mantra of our room.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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