It didn’t take long for the veteran ballhawk Minkah Fitzpatrick to get his fingers on the pigskin Wednesday as he defended a pass intended for Garrett Wilson on the first day of Jets training camp.
“I was really close to getting one,” Fitzpatrick said after the Day 1 session at the Atlantic Health Jets Training Center. “I thought Garrett was actually going to play the ball, but he saw it late, so I was going to go play through his hands, and the ball came behind him. I tried to get a hand and make a pretty one-handed catch, but it fell through.”
Fitzpatrick, a three-time All-Pro safety, was acquired via trade from Miami in the offseason for myriad reasons — two of which are his leadership skills and his ability across 8 NFL seasons to pilfer passes thrown by opposing quarterbacks. In 5 seasons with the Steelers and another 3 with the Dolphins, Fitzpatrick has 21 career interceptions.
For Fitzpatrick, that skill comes down to a single word: Instinct.
“It starts up front, it starts with disguises, giving quarterbacks different looks,” Fitzpatrick, 29, said. “But at the end of the day, I think what it boils down to is instincts, having a really good feel for the game, knowing where the quarterback is trying to get the ball, being able to feel receivers and see the quarterback and at the same time, understand where they’re trying to attack you.