1-on-1: Pat Freiermuth - January 24, 2023

1-on-1: Pat Freiermuth - January 24, 2023

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
That you just finished your your second season in the NFL.
There there's a theory out there that tight ends take
a little bit longer to become what they they are
eventually going to be there, you know, reached their peak years.
Do you feel like you've you still got a lot
to learn in this game? Yeah? Absolutely. You know, I'm
happy with the success I had so far, but you know,

(00:20):
obviously I have to continue to take steps forward. There's
a lot of room for improvement. I'm not naive enough
to think that there's not. You know, I just gotta
come in every some day in the offseason and attack
my my program and uh, you know, continued to put
a good step forward. I mentioned just two yesterday. There's
only two tight ends in NFL history who have sixty
catches or more in their first two seasons, and you're

(00:41):
one of them. That kind of availability, consistency, how do
you continue to build on that? Yeah, I'm just you know,
continue to go through my process. I think that I've
had a good process my two years here, and I
think that availability is huge here in the NFL. And
you know, if you can't go on the parkic field
every single week and you can't play in games and

(01:01):
it was gonna be hard for you to be successful. So, um,
just continue to be healthy and follow my program. You
go from working with a veteran quarterback in your rookie
year and Ben, to working with the rookie quarterback and
Kenny Pickett for the most part this year. How did
that transition go for you? Do you feel like you
and Kenny could really build on what you guys did
this year? Yeah, for sure, Um, I think you know,

(01:22):
me and Kenny had a great relationships in our beginning
stages of our careers here and obviously room for improvement
because obviously is gonna be big for you know, Kenny
and the whole offensive scope position groups I'm getting together
and Kenny has to continue to find his little nuances
in the offense to uh, you know, different signals and
all that kind of stuff like that like Ben had.
I think that was the different The biggest difference was,
you know, Ben's been around for eighteen years, so we've

(01:43):
seen everything, so you know, he could check a play
at the line and and and go from there, and
obviously Kenny's little hesitant to do that now. But you know,
Kenny's a hell of a quarterback. And you know, he's
the future of this organization and I'm excited for him
to be my quarterback and be our leader. You guys
really went run heavy in the second half of the season,
and that meant some games where you didn't get quite

(02:05):
as many passes. But coming into the season, you talked
about how you wanted to improve you're blocking. Do you
feel like you did that in some instances? Yes, I
feel like I did. Um. You know, I think that
there are some games where obviously, you know, going up
against you know, top tier talent in the NFL that
you know, obviously I struggled with that most guys struggle with.
But you know, there are some games that I feel
like I took steps, and there's some games that I

(02:25):
felt like I didn't take steps. And I mean that's
all part of the growth. I'm not now even think
that I grew as much as I wanted to in
the blocking game. But you know that for me as
an individual and as a player, that's always going to
be an evolution my game. See you at practice constantly,
Alfredo Roberts is in your ear. What's that relationship and
like with him, Yeah, yeah, it's been great. You know,
He's always in my ear about, you know, doing the

(02:47):
extra things because he's played in the NFL and knows
what takes to be successful. And it's awesome to have
a coach that cares much about as your success as
I care about my success. And uh, he's a great
coach and a great friend. What do you got to
concentrate on in this offseason? Truthfully? Everything? Um, just have
the same you know model that I did last year
and in my off season prepp and obviously just get
healthy and uh, you know, focus on you know, my

(03:09):
upper body strength. And I'm just understanding the game more
as a player who's played two years, Understanding defenses throughout
the player what they're trying to do, and probably just
improving that is that maybe the toughest thing for young
tight ends. I mean you have to read the defense
kind of on the fly as opposed to being on
the outside as a receiver where I'm okay, I'm running
the post, but what you're doing is depends on where

(03:29):
the linebackers are at, where the safeties are at, those
kind of things. That's everything, and it goes beyond you know,
the past game obviously goes with fronts and all that
kind of stuff and front movement and labbacker movement and
different variations of blitzes and stuff, and it's challenging, but
I think, like you said, it's definitely the most challenge
of parts being tight end is do you have to
see the whole defense move and all that. And I
think the more and more you see that, I mean,

(03:50):
our defense is unbelievable doing it. So see and camper
every single you're obviously helps