Ohio State travels to Happy Valley to face the Nittany Lions for a prime time matchup on Halloween night. Here’s your preview and prediction.
Record
Ohio State (1-0), Penn State (0-1)
Broadcast, TV, Game Time
Date: Saturday, Oct. 31 Game Time: 7:30 pm EDT Network: ABC Venue: Beaver Stadium – Capacity – 106,572 (no fans permitted due to COVID-19 restrictions) All-Time Series: Ohio State leads 20-14 Last Meeting: Ohio State defeated Penn State 28-17 in 2019
After a somewhat slow start, Ohio State took care of Nebraska the way we thought they would. There is definitely work to do, especially on the offensive and defensive lines, but, overall, the Buckeyes looked as good as advertised.
A trip to Happy Valley looms this week, although the Nittany Lions don’t seem quite as fierce after a loss to Indiana and the absence of the vaunted “white out” crowd. Nonetheless, these two programs have slugged it out over the past several years and nothing can be taken for granted.
The Baltimore Ravens select their newest tight end in Penn State’s Pat Freiermuth in our early 2021 NFL mock draft.
It’s only the middle of the 2020 NFL season and so much is likely to change over the next few months, not only for the Baltimore Ravens but the rest of the league as well. But that’s not going to stop us from taking a peek ahead to the 2021 NFL Draft and what Baltimore could be looking to do to improve their team for another Super Bowl run.
Using The Draft Network’s mock draft simulator, I acted as Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta and made Baltimore’s first-round selection. With the No. 30 pick in the 2021 NFL Draft, I had the Ravens select Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth.
With so many more pressing needs, like at outside linebacker and the offensive line, you’d be right to question why I took a tight end in the first round. But with few interior offensive linemen available and Baltimore bolstering its pass rush by trading for defensive end Yannick Ngakoue, adding another capable blocker and pass catcher for quarterback Lamar Jackson seemed like the wisest decision. And when you see what Freiermuth can do on the field and hear what pundits are calling him, it makes even more sense.
Frequently called “baby Gronk” for how similar he plays to former New England Patriots and current Tampa Bay Buccaneers tight end Rob Gronkowski, Freiermuth is the perfect fit for what the Ravens like to do. In Baltimore’s offense, they love big-bodied tight ends capable of acting as an extra tackle when blocking and fast enough to create problems as a pass-catching threat. Both Gronkowski and Freiermuth are adept at both phases of the game.
Draft analyst Kyle Crabbs is high on Freiermuth, helping put him 14th on The Draft Network’s big board. Just take a glance at some of the positives he saw in Freiermuth’s game.
“For a true sophomore, his polish is pretty stellar. He’s got a clear and firm grasp on the little things that can lie to defenders — whether that is stalk blocking into a delayed release to leak into space as a pass catcher, how to step around jams at the line of scrimmage with his hand in the dirt or how to attack the football in the air and dominate at the catch point. Nickname is “Baby Gronk” — and while the comparison is ambitious, you can see clearly where it came from.”
In just one game this season, Freiermuth caught seven passes for 60 yards and a touchdown. Over the last two years, Freiermuth has caught 69 passes for 875 yards and 15 touchdowns — an average of 4.6 receptions, 58 yards, and one touchdown per game at Penn State. When you see some of his college highlights, it’s easy to see how he’s so prolific.
Granted, the Ravens do have both Mark Andrews and Nick Boyle at tight end. However, Andrews’ rookie deal will wrap up following the 2021 season and he very likely will be too expensive to keep around. Likewise, Boyle’s contract has him set to hit free agency following the 2021 season. He too could be too expensive given his limited role as a receiver in Baltimore’s scheme. Drafting Freiermuth would give the Ravens a year with all three tight ends in the lineup and a chance to groom their rookie into a star before potentially having to move on from Andrews and Boyle.
Baltimore has frequently drafted players before they’re actually needed as it plays the long game in terms of acquiring and grooming top talent. Getting Freiermuth might not make as much sense as selecting a pass rusher, wide receiver, or interior offensive lineman; but it would pay off quickly to keep Baltimore’s offense flowing with Jackson under center.
The Jags’ defense may be the worst unit on their team, however, the team was slotted some offensive help in CBS Sports’ new mock.
As the weeks go by, the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 2021 draft positioning becomes that much more interesting. The reason for that is because the product on the field seems to indicate that the organization is headed towards a top-2 selection, which would be the highest since the team’s inaugural season.
With that being the case, the Jags have been slotted highly in a lot of mock drafts including a recent one by CBS Sports’ Ryan Wilson. With the No. 2 overall pick, he slotted the Jags a familiar face in Ohio State signal-caller Justin Fields, who will take the field for the first time in 2020 today.
2. Jacksonville Jaguars – QB Justin Fields, Ohio State
We’ll get out first glimpse of Justin Fields on Saturday when Ohio State faces Nebraska. And while we like Gardner Minshew, at this point in his career he’s better served as a spot starter.
There isn’t much for us to say about Fields that hasn’t already been said on Jags Wire. In a nutshell, he brings the perfect blend of arm talent and athleticism to the mix and has all the tools to build around.
When taking this pick into consideration, many have made the argument that the Jags’ defense is significantly worse than the offense. Those people wouldn’t be wrong.
However, if the Jags are picking second overall, there could be a new regime. It’s not out of the realm of possibilities that they would want their own quarterback. Additionally, the defense could be addressed before the draft as the Jags are due to be No. 2 as far as available salary cap next year.
With the Jags’ second first-round pick (from the Los Angeles Rams) the Jags were wisely slotted a offensive weapon for Fields. That weapon was Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth, who many see as the second-best tight end in the draft.
23. Jacksonville Jaguars – TE Pat Freiermuth Penn State
Freiermuth isn’t as athletic at Kyle Pitts but he can line up anywhere and stress the defense at every level.
Tight end has long been an issue for the Jags and they still don’t have their guy at the position till this day. However, Freiermuth could potentially fix that with his 6-foot-5, 250-pound frame.
The young tight end has been such a solid athlete that Penn State has used him on the boundary at times. Many scouts feel he’ll be a big time mismatch on the NFL level, too, which would add another dynamic to the Jags’ offense.
When looking at the current state of the Jags, these are certainly two picks that make sense for them. As always though, we’d like to hear from you all at home. Are these two picks you all can get behind, or should the Jags go in a different direction? Let us know on social media.
Ranking the 10 football players we will miss watching the most from the Big 10 and Pac-12: No. 9 Penn State TE Pat Freiermuth.
The Big Ten announced its decision Tuesday to postpone fall sports. Minutes after, the Pac-12 made the decision to postpone its season as well.
With two of the Power Five conferences not playing, the entire college football season is now up in the air. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 still have plans to have their conference-only seasons, but there are a number of players, coaches and teams that college football fans will miss watching dearly.
The No. 9 player we will miss watching most this year from the Big Ten and Pac-12 is Penn State junior tight end Pat Freiermuth.
Freiermuth has caught more touchdown passes (15) than any other tight end in Penn State history, and he’s done that in only two seasons. He has also caught those 15 touchdowns on just 69 passes. This was going to be a big year for Freiermuth to get involved in the Penn State offense much more regularly.
Freiermuth, who stands at 6-foot-5, 259 pounds, is an excellent route runner with great speed, athleticism and blocking ability. His reception average went from two in 2018 to 3.3 in 2019. That number was expected to go up even more in 2020, making Freiermuth one of the top prospects in the 2021 NFL draft.
The New Orleans Saints selected Penn State tight end Pat Freiermuth in the latest 2021 NFL mock draft, pairing him with Adam Trautman.
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The New Orleans Saints shocked the football cognoscenti by trading all of their remaining picks to go get small-school prospect Adam Trautman in the 2020 NFL Draft, but the latest too-soon projection for next year’s event has them adding another tight end.
And there’d be little to argue with if that’s the way the Saints end up going. Luke Easterling over at Draft Wire has connected New Orleans with Penn State’s Pat Freiermuth, a rare tight end to be named to the Biletnikoff Award watch list — college football’s honor for the nation’s best pass-catcher, usually a wide receiver.
Freiermuth’s resume speaks for itself. The big underclassman listed at 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds has already tied Mike Gesicki’s school record for touchdown catches (15) before his junior year, and he finished in second-place last season in every receiving category behind wideout K.J. Hamler, an eventual Denver Broncos second-round pick. While he’s known for his receiving ability, his eagerness to throw blocks at the line of scrimmage suggests he could develop quickly with pro-level coaching.
Affectionately called “Free Moose” by Penn State faithful, Freiermuth could team up with Trautman in a one-two punch to set the stage for overhaul at tight end in New Orleans. Jared Cook has been hyped up by the coaching staff all summer, but he’s entering a contract year after his 33rd birthday. Josh Hill, the nominal backup and blocking specialist, is also 30 and only under contract through 2021. It might make sense for Trautman to replace Cook next offseason with Freiermuth coming down the pipeline a year later.
Still, it’s far too soon to guess who the Saints might end up picking. Dozens of mock drafts failed to connect them with Cesar Ruiz ahead of this year’s event, even in the days leading up to the draft. The Saints themselves won’t know who is on their radar until the team has played out its season and navigated free agency. So keep Freiermuth’s name in mind once college games kick off in the fall — this isn’t much more than the start of our own watch list.
A mock draft gives the Dallas Cowboys a tight end at the back end of the first round.
The Dallas Cowboys tried to find, if not a replacement, a suitable facsimile of tight end Jason Witten for years. The front office drafted Gavin Escobar, Anthony Fasano and Martellus Bennett a round earlier than the future Hall of Famer. They tried finding hidden gems in the later rounds, hoping to steal some talent. Ultimately nothing they tried mattered, as Witten was able to outlast and outperform them all.
In Brent Sobleski’s most recent 2021 mock draft at Bleacher Report, he has the Cowboys trying their luck at the tight end position again, drafting Pat Freiermuth from Penn State with pick No. 28. Says Sobleski, “The 6’5″, 259-pound target, who caught 43 passes for 507 yards last season, continues to draw Rob Gronkowski comparisons.”
That’s high praise, to be sure. It would also be the first time that Dallas used a first-round pick on a tight end since David LaFleur in 1997. It’s not impossible to think that the Cowboys would continue to throw resources at weapons for quarterback Dak Prescott, but the team may already have their tight end of the future in the fold with Blake Jarwin, who signed an extension in March.
The team will likely have further pressing needs, particularly on the back end of the defense. And while Dallas eschewed the same needs for an offensive weapon in CeeDee Lamb in 2020, it’s hard to imagine them doing that in consecutive years when the sheer number of defensive backs scheduled to hit the free-agent market next off-season is mind boggling.
Four of the Cowboys’ projected contributors are free-agents-to-be. Cornerbacks Jourdan Lewis and Chidobe Awuzie as well as the projected starting safety tandem of Xavier Woods and Ha-Ha Clinton-Dix could all be in different uniforms come next year. That’s without mentioning the rest of the depth the team could be losing.
