Steelers went big; Fitzpatrick has gone bigger
This isn’t the Steelers Way, the critics said.
You don’t trade a No. 1 pick for anybody. Dan Rooney wouldn’t have allowed it if he still were alive.
Maybe it was time for the Steelers to try a new way.
The franchise missed the playoffs last season after one of its worst collapses. It has won just three postseason games since going to the Super Bowl after the 2010 season.
Maybe it was time to be bold.
And so the Steelers were. They did something in midSeptember that they hadn’t done since 1967. They traded their No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft to the Miami Dolphins for safety Minkah Fitzpatrick. It wasn’t so
much about sending a message that management still was all-in after an 0-2 start and losing Ben Roethlisberger to an elbow injury in the second game. It wasn’t so much about finding a replacement for Sean Davis, who also was injured in that second game. It was about acquiring a special player that Kevin Colbert and Mike Tomlin loved going back to the 2018 predraft days, before the Dolphins took Fitzpatrick with the 11th overall pick, long before the Steelers’ turn at 28.
“I think it’s our overall level of comfort with the player,” Tomlin said.
There are a lot of ways to say the trade has worked out well for the Steelers, starting with Fitzpatrick’s four interceptions, tied for secondmost in the NFL. But I like this one best: Fitzpatrick no longer needs a last name in this town. Everybody knows him as Minkah.
Think about that for a second.
It took Franco, Rocky and Ben a long time to reach that elite status. It’s taken Fitzpatrick just six games.
The argument against the trade was that this easily could be the year the Steelers hit bottom. That No. 1 pick could be a top-10 pick or higher. The team could use it to draft a quarterback to take over once Roethlisberger is done. Mason Rudolph surely isn’t the answer if
the Steelers finish 3-13 or 4-12.
The argument for the trade was that Fitzpatrick is a young player in just his second NFL season, a superb talent who fills a need not just this season but beyond with Davis expected to leave as a free agent. Fitzpatrick is signed for two more seasons at a manageable cap hit with a team option for a third season.
Not even Colbert and Tomlin could have imagined the trade would work out as well as it is has.
“Minkah needs no endorsement from me,” Tomlin said. “The tape is his storyteller. He has been really rock-solid.”
This was last Sunday, after Fitzpatrick’s interception and 96-yard return for a touchdown led the Steelers to a 26-24 win against the Indianapolis Colts. The Colts led, 10-3, and were driving for more when Fitzpatrick made the splash play that brought back wonderful memories of another Steelers safety who needed just one name. Troy.
“The Steelers have not had a player like that in the back end since Troy Polamalu,” Steelers analyst Chris Hoke said.
“I played with Troy for 10 years. You knew when you got in a tough moment in the game and we needed a play, you knew there was one guy you could count on to make it. That was Troy Polamalu.”
That was Fitzpatrick against the Colts.
“You put Sean Davis out there and the game is 17-3,” Hoke said. “Watch the film. Minkah is looking at [the quarterback’s] eyes. He read his eyes. He slides over there, picks that ball off and he’s gone.”
Here is Keith Butler’s take:
“To me, [Fitzpatrick] is very sudden. What I mean by that is once he realizes what is going on, he is quick to attack and do his job.”
If only Fitzpatrick had hair flowing out the back of his helmet.
And how about this take before the 2018 draft from Fitzpatrick’s coach at Alabama, Nick Saban:
“Minkah does it as well as anybody I’ve ever coached in terms of how he works every day, how he finishes plays, his conditioning level, just phenomenal. Pays attention to detail. It’s important to him. Makes sure he knows what to do. I don’t even know if I can describe him well enough. He’s the exact model you love to have as a coach.”
The Steelers are seeing all of that from Fitzpatrick. They also know that his best is yet to come. He still is a newbie in their defense. He still is learning their system. They still are learning about him. Tomlin and Butler will find new and creative ways to make him even more effective.
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Here’s one final way to look at the trade:
Rudolph has done just about what you would expect from a first-time starting quarterback, mixing good with the bad. He has played well enough for the Steelers to be 4-4 on a threegame winning streak going into Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Rams. At best, they will finish with a winning record and sneak into the playoffs. At worst, they will finish somewhere around .500 with a record that would have given them a mid-first round pick next spring. They will not be looking for a quarterback. Roethlisberger is expected back next season.
Ask yourself this question:
Would the Steelers do better than Fitzpatrick with that first-round pick?
I say no.