Minkah Fitzpatrick is now the highest paid safety in the NFL, and it is well deserved. In his three years with the Steelers, he has put up outstanding numbers. 260 combined tackles, 11 interceptions, 27 passes defended, 3 forced fumbles, 4 recovered fumbles, 3 tackles for a loss, and a touchdown. Oh, he also made the Pro Bowl twice and two First-Team All Pro selections. Yeah, he’s really good.
His $73.6 million dollar extension pushed him ahead of safeties such as Seattle Seahawks’ Jamal Adams, Minnesota Vikings’ Harrison Smith, and Denver Broncos’ Justin Simmons. But it will not matter if the Steelers don’t fix their offense line and have competent quarterback play.
The Steelers were extremely lucky last season that the Ravens were hampered by injuries, the Browns imploded, the Chargers pulled a classic Chargers choke, and the Colts had Carson Wentz as their quarterback because they had no right to be in that final Wildcard spot. And it showed when the Chiefs beat them by 21-points in what turned out to be Ben Roethlisberger’s last game.
The way the Steelers narrowly squeaked into the playoffs was a fitting send off for Ben Roethlisberger, but the Steelers’ fans want more than just blowout Wildcard sendoff games for its legends. They want championships.
And they will not get one with their current, starting O-Line, or if they have Mitchell Trubisky starting under center come Week 1. They had one of the most explosive and shifty running backs to come out of the 2021 draft, Najee Harris, last year. And they practically wasted him. On every rushing attempt, he practically had to beat four defenders to just get out of the backfield. The O-Line was that bad last season.
It’s a testament to Harris’ talent that he had 1,200 rushing yards and 7 rushing touchdowns running behind that O-Line.
Still, I cannot blame all the Steelers’ offensive problems on the O-Line as a great deal of responsibility has to be put on the retired shoulders of Ben Rothlisberger. Really, I should be putting the blame on his throwing arm, not his shoulder, as it was non-existent last season.
Watching the Steelers offense, it seemed as if 90% of all passes thrown by Big Ben last year were short, 5-yard out-routes that were still usually underthrown. His arm was well and truly finished two years ago, and last year more than proved it.
Big Ben has had a Hall of Fame career, but his decision to cling on to the last few years of his football career must go down as a poor choice on his part. Most fans will now only remember the battered, beaten down shell of a quarterback he was, rather than him lifting two Lombardi trophies behind his cannon arm a decade ago.
Alright, with Big Ben is retired, who did the Steelers pick up to replace him? Mitchell Trubisky and 20th overall pick Kenny Pickett. Yeah, this could be a real problem for The Black and Gold.
Pickett could develop into a decent starting quarterback in a few years’ time with the right mentoring, though probably never as good as Ben Rothlisberger. Spending 5 years in college and only ever posting one season of completing at least 63% of his passes does not bode to well into him being the next Drew Brees in terms of accuracy. Nevertheless, that does not mean he can’t still be the next Kirk Cousins, a solid starter with at least 10 years of productivity.
Now, Mitchell Trubisky is Mitchell Trubisky. Always a subpar passer coming out of college, he was over drafted by Chicago (at #3 overall back in 2017), underdeveloped by Matt Nagey and that horrendous Chicago front office, and then discarded a year ago now as yet another quarterback to traverse the Chicago quarterback carousel. If Pittsburgh wanted to be able diversify their offense, Trubisky was the wrong choice for QB (unless they want to go full wildcat next year, which would go great with Trubisky’s skillset and would be very interesting to watch; though, they would probably finish dead last if they did).
The Steelers can sign every one of the best defensive players to each one of their starting positions, and it still will not be enough to make the playoffs next year. As the teams around them got stronger (especially at QB) on offense, the Steelers have stagnated. No one has ever snuck into the playoffs by sheer luck twice in a row, and the Steelers won’t be the trend breakers.
For more of Minkah Fitzpatrick’s stats and other Steelers, go to Pro Football Reference. I left a link at the end of the article.
Images Source:
Other Sources: Minkah Fitzpatrick/Other Steelers Player Stats: (Minkah Fitzpatrick Stats | Pro-Football-Reference.com)
