Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick cracks list of top NFL players under 25

Minkah Fitzpatrick has been remarkable. Here’s why Pro Football Focus has the Steelers safety ranked so high on a list of top players under 25 years old. 

Since the closure of the NFL Draft, Pro Football Focus has been giving its positional rankings of the best players in the NFL entering the 2021 season. Pittsburgh Steelers like T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward were some of their most highly-regarded players.

Now PFF’s Sam Monson shifts his focus to one of my favorite offseason pieces: The top 25 players under the age of 25 in the NFL. At age 26, Watt misses the cutoff this year, but there’s another Steelers star defender who showed up high on these rankings.

Free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was ranked 6th on Monson’s list. The only players ahead of him were Fred Warner, Lamar Jackson, A.J. Brown, Nick Bosa, and Jaire Alexander. Fitzpatrick was ranked just ahead of impressive young players like Chase Young, Justin Jefferson, Tristan Wirfs, and DK Metcalf.

It’s also worth noting that Minkah was ranked above another budding star in Jessie Bates. The Cincinnati Bengals safety was ranked 11th on the list of the top 25 players under the age of 25. Outside of Bates and Fitzpatrick, no other safeties made the cut.

Why the Steelers star deserves to be so high on this list

I take no issue with Monson’s rankings, and listing Fitzpatrick inside the top 6 players in the NFL under 25 years old is an impressive feat. Obviously, this is not adjusted for positional value, as I could easily make the case why Fitzpatrick is more valuable as a playmaking safety than the number one player on this list – an off-the-ball linebacker in Fred Warner.

Still, Fitzpatrick’s ranking is impressive, but it’s also justified. No other secondary player in the league has recorded more takeaway-worthy plays over the past two seasons – and he did so at the age of 22 and 23.

Now in his age 24 season, there are lofty expectations for the young star. After another dominant performance in 2020, Fitzpatrick became one of the youngest defenders in NFL history to be selected to 2 First-Team All-Pros. In fact, when it comes to All-Pro honors, Fitzpatrick is on a faster pace than legendary safeties like Troy Polamalu, Ed Reed, and Earl Thomas.

At this rate, it’s not hard to envision a future Hall of Fame career from Minkah Fitzpatrick. With his combination of instincts and coverage skills, there isn’t another young safety in the league I would choose over him at this point.

I’m not at all surprised to see Fitzpatrick crack the list of the top 25 players under the age of 25 in the NFL. He will have one more shot at this list during the 2022 offseason before he is no longer eligible. Perhaps he can elevate his status even higher with another dominant performance this year.