American football tight end Patrick John Freiermuth (born October 25, 1998) plays for the National Football League (NFL) Pittsburgh Steelers. In the second round of the 2021 NFL Draft, the Steelers selected him while he was a Penn State football player.
For many years, Freiermuth—a Merrimac, Massachusetts native—went to Pentucket Regional High School in West Newbury, Massachusetts, before moving to North Andover, Massachusetts, to attend Brooks School. He wore jersey number eight while playing tight end and outside linebacker for Brooks. There, he participated in basketball as a small forward and power forward as well.[1] He totaled 1,531 yards and 24 touchdowns in his career.[2] He pledged to play college football at Penn State University.
In 2018, Freiermuth broke the record for the most receiving touchdowns by a rookie tight end with nine starts and 26 receptions for 368 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman for the Nittany Lions.[4][5][6] In addition to being invited to the NFL Draft Combine the year before, he started the next two seasons and was named Penn State Football’s Most Valuable Offensive Player in 2019. Despite the rumors that he would seize the opportunity, he turned it down and declared in a press conference alongside Coach James Franklin that he intended to renew his commitment to Penn State for an additional year.
There, he participated in thirty games in all, starting forty of them. With sixteen career touchdowns, he tied for ninth place all-time at Penn State and led all tight ends in touchdowns scored. He finished with 92 career receptions and 1,185 lifetime receiving yards. In 2020, he became the first-ever Penn State tight end to win the Kwalick–Clark Tight End of the Year award in the Big Ten Conference.