Minkah Fitzpatrick had one of the best starts to his Steelers tenure of any defensive back in franchise history. After being acquired via trade from the Miami Dolphins in 2019, Fitzpatrick picked off five passes en route to being named a first-team All-Pro. That sort of ball production continued, with Fitzpatrick picking off 18 passes and being named a first-team All-Pro three times from 2019-2022.

Then, the splash stopped.

After failing to force any turnovers during the 2023 season, Fitzpatrick had one interception in 2024, and after the season was traded to Miami in exchange for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith.

So what happened? If you believe Fitzpatrick, he stagnated in his deep-safety role.

During an appearance on The Pivot, Fitzpatrick said the Steelers failed to take advantage of his versatility, keeping him in a role where he became less impactful when quarterbacks started throwing away from where he was on the field.

“In Pittsburgh, I definitely regret the way I handled the situation. When I first got there, they just plugged me in at post safety, half safety. And I played well there. After awhile, quarterbacks aren’t going to be throwing you the ball a whole lot,” Fitzpatrick said. “And I kind of got pushed into that role. People forgot that what I was known for, was my versatility and doing different things. I’m a good football player, so no matter where you put me on the field, I’m going to be a good football player. But I think where my capabilities are maximized is when I could do different things.”

Fitzpatrick said he feels that the Steelers weren’t getting the splash plays they wanted while paying him as one of the NFL’s top safeties.

“They got so used to me being in that role and doing a good job of it, that they didn’t remember, or they didn’t really care to move me around, so I just got stuck in that role,” he said. “And after awhile, my splash and production went down. I was still playing good football, but it wasn’t splashy football. I was having to make tackles downfield after a busted run, and it’s like ‘Good job, but we paying you $18 million, we want to see splash.’”

He added that he wishes he would have had a conversation with the staff to try to change his role.

“But I kind of just bit the bullet,” Fitzpatrick said. “They brought other guys in that couldn’t move around and do different things.”

In an ironic twist, Fitzpatrick was traded for Jalen Ramsey, whom the Steelers viewed as a versatile piece to move around their defense. That’s the role he played last year and figures to as well as in 2026, lining up in the slot and at safety and moving around a lot more than Fitzpatrick did.

In Miami, Fitzpatrick began his career as a slot corner before the Steelers moved him to safety. Really, there was no reason for the team to move him around when he was leading the league in interceptions and creating takeaways. But it sounds like during or after that 2023 season, Fitzpatrick thought he was best suited to play a different role.

It’s a fair assessment and he doesn’t really seem to be assigning blame to the Steelers as much as he is himself for not bringing it up with the coaches. Quarterbacks did avoid throwing in his direction and he wasn’t able to make big plays. Even his comment about having to chase down running backs isn’t really a dig. His role was to be the last line of defense, and he registered 96 or more tackles every year except one from 2021-2024.

Whether the Steelers would’ve made an effort to transition Fitzpatrick into different roles if he had the conversation is worth wondering, but it’s clear that he feels it would’ve been beneficial for the defense. He was once a core piece of the unit, and the Steelers brought in pieces around what he could do, but that pigeonholed him in one role.

Fitzpatrick feels he’s going to be more versatile than he has been this season with the Jets, and it’ll be interesting to see whether his production can tick back to what it was during his prime with the Steelers.

There’s no arguing that he had a really good tenure with Pittsburgh, but things fizzled out rather quickly. Whether that would’ve been the case had the Steelers used Fitzpatrick how he felt was best is something we’ll never know.