Locker curse proving tough one to break

Not even a top draft pick who used it could extend his stay

DAVIE —Veterans Walt Aikens and Bobby McCain thought Minkah Fitzpatrick would break it.

Aikens and McCain have sat in an Lshaped corner of the team’s locker room at the Davie practice facility since being drafted by the Dolphins in 2014 and 2015, respectively.

There’s one locker in particular, on the outside edge of the corner, where the two players have seen so many others trying to make an impact in their NFL careers come and go.

Some players barely lasted a day, they said.

“We’ve had people come, make the team during the little tryouts [and] get cut before lunch,” Aikens said this past week. “When Minkah got here, we told him the story.”

Fitzpatrick sat at this particular locker since becoming the Dolphins’ first-round pick in 2018. He was a standout defender at Alabama and thrived playing in multiple positions as a rookie last season. He seemed primed to be a cornerstone of the Dolphins defense this season and into the future.

Aikens and McCain thought Fitzpatrick would be the one who could reverse the locker’s bad juju.

There was only one problem: They were wrong.

“We explained the story to Minkah when he got drafted,” Aikens said. “We were just laughing about [how] a first-round pick broke the curse of the seat.

“It’s the seat, I’m telling you.” Fitzpatrick may not have been released

by the team, but his trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this season was abrupt, surprising and raised doubt about the overall direction of the Dolphins franchise. And that locker of course. For Fitzpatrick, who will face his former team on “Monday Night Football,” it was simply time for him to move on.

Fitzpatrick ultimately was uncomfortable in the role he was playing in Dolphins coach Brian Flores’ defense. And Fitzpatrick has seamlessly fit into his new role as a free safety — in the position he wanted to play — with his new team.

“That is the thing I like about here — we run what we run,and we run it well,” Fitzpatrick said of the Steelers (2-4) and his new defense. “We don’t try to do too much, don’t try to change it up week to week. We just go out there and execute what we are used to and just play.”

Despite thriving as a nickel cornerback, safety and cornerback during his rookie season under former Dolphins coach Adam Gase, Fitzpatrick felt his skill set could have been better utilized as a free safety on Flores’ defense.

However with McCain serving in that role, Fitzpatrick was instead thrust into a rover defensive back role, where he could be defending larger tight ends or shifty slot receivers in the middle of the field on any given snap.

It was a role Flores believed Fitzpatrick could handle until he missed tackles, was being outmatched by bigger tight ends and got torched by Baltimore Ravens rookie Marquise ‘Hollywood’ Brown for an 83-yard touchdown during the season opener.

Fitzpatrick was traded after two games. The trade occurred shortly after former Steelers’ starting free safety Sean Davis suffered a torn labrum in his shoulder, ending his season.

“We really like Minkah,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said of Fitzpatrick, whom the team studied thoroughly before the 2018 draft.

“We not only like his game, but we like his football character and those things. We felt like we [had] already done the work on him, so our interest did go back beyond the recent transaction.”

The Dolphins have coped without their former 2018 first-round pick the best they could during their 0-6 start this season.

McCain has seen the most playing time in the secondary,

with cornerback Xavien Howard (knee) and safety Reshad Jones (chest) nursing injuries and missing games in recent weeks and Aikens relegated to special teams.

The Dolphins have had to rely on inexperienced players such as fifth-year cornerback Eric Rowe, first-year defensive backs Jomal Wiltz, Chris Lammons and Steven Parker, second-year cornerback Ryan Lewis, and rookies Nik Needham and Ken Webster to defend the back-end of their defense.

Those players have other seats in the Dolphins locker room.

Aikens and McCain remember cornerback Sammy Seamster, then quarterbacks Josh Freeman and Logan Thomas sitting and succumbing to the “cursed” locker in 2014 and 2015 before the area was dominated by the defensive backs.

That’s the extent of the pair’s recollection because of how quickly other players have come and gone without making an impact on the team.

“Minkah was the longest-lasting person in there — for a year,” McCain said.

With nine weeks left in the regular season after Monday’s game, the Dolphins could bring in more defensive backs or players of other positions to evaluate before the end of the season.