The Pittsburgh Steelers are becoming the NFL version of the Penn State Nittany Lions.
On Thursday, the Pittsburgh Steelers signed safety Jaquan Brisker, formerly of the Chicago Bears.
With the acquisition of Brisker, the Steelers now have three of their main players on both sides of the football reining from State College.
Brisker is the newest addition to a defense that has traditionally been one of the best in the NFL. He joins his former teammate, Joey Porter Jr., in the Steelers secondary. At Penn State, those two terrorized opposing offenses, but it didn't directly lead to victories.
Brisker left for the NFL after the 2021 season, while Porter Jr. left after the 2022 campaign. Their careers overlapped for the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons, where the Nittany Lions were up and down from a wins and losses perspective.
Their defense, however, was awesome.
Brisker was eventually a second-round pick to the Bears in the 2022 NFL Draft, while Porter Jr. was the Steelers' selection with the first pick in the second round of the 2023 draft.
Porter Jr. has become one of the top 10 cornerbacks in the league while Brisker is has his sights set on becoming a long-term answer at the back-end of the Steelers defense.
On the other side of the football, tight end Pat Freiermuth has become a mainstay in Pittsburgh. He has been nothing but special in his entire career for a franchise that has historically been one of the best for producing tight ends in the country.
Freiermuth took over the position from Vance McDonald and Jesse James, who were fantastic for the Steelers for several seasons.
Freiermuth has appeared in 78 games for Pittsburgh and has registered 261 catches for 2,676 yards and 22 touchdowns. He has done all of this after being one of the all-time great tight ends in Penn State history.
He played for Penn State from 2018 through 2020 and put up stellar numbers. In his college career, he had 92 total catches for 1,195 yards and 16 touchdowns. His breakout season was his Sophomore campaign in 2019 before a disappointing 2020 year.
He overlapped with both Porter Jr. and Brisker for the 2019 and 2020 seasons in Happy Valley.
As the Steelers put together their roster for 2025, they may continue to tap into the Penn State pipeline. There are a couple of options late in the first and second rounds that they could look to add rookies in the draft and continue to acquire more great Nittany Lion talent.
The Pittsburgh Steelers are quickly becoming Penn State of western Pennsylvania.