Pittsburgh Steelers should re-sign both starting safeties in 2022

The Pittsburgh Steelers have some difficult choices to make in the 2022 offseason, but here’s why they should re-sign both Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds. 

It was a down year for the Pittsburgh Steelers defensively. While T.J. Watt and Cameron Heyward continued their remarkable run, Minkah Fitzpatrick came down to earth with a solid, yet unspectacular season.

The same could be said for his counterpart, Terrell Edmunds, who — despite being a former 2018 first-round pick in his own right — has never lived up to lofty expectations. The secondary was a bit of a letdown this season, but it was far from Pittsburgh’s only problem in 2022.

Now approaching the 2022 offseason, the Steelers have some very big decisions to make. According to Over the Cap, Pittsburgh is projected to have upwards of $42 million in cap space this coming offseason, which is more than they’ve had in years. However, they also only have 43 players under contract, and could be losing a number of big names this year.

Despite some pressing needs all around the roster, Kevin Colbert needs to find a way to keep both Minkah Fitzpatrick and Terrell Edmunds.

Steelers must re-sign both starting safeties

Signing Minkah is a must. Though he didn’t produce nearly as many splash plays this season as we had hoped for, the former two-time All-Pro is just 25 years old and has an incredibly bright future ahead of him. Despite the down year, Fitzpatrick showed the ability to support the run and be a safety valve for this leaky defense in 2021.

If the Steelers can start to play and force teams to pass the ball more often in the future, I’m very confident that Fitzpatrick’s value will quickly return, and the star safety really improved his play late in the season. Pittsburgh picked up Minkah’s fifth-year option, so he will already be under contract for the 2022 season. However, they need to lock him up to a long-term deal, and that seems likely to happen this offseason.

The decision of whether or not to re-sign Terrell Edmunds is one that is sure to stir up much more controversy. While he has been a reliable football player, Edmunds has been almost completely void of any splash, and he doesn’t seem like he’s ever going to be a big threat to take the ball away at a high rate.

Regardless, there is much to be said about continuity at the safety position in the NFL. For eight years, Troy Polamalu and Ryan Clark had outstanding chemistry with each other. As Polamalu was the aggressive playmaker in Pittsburgh’s secondary, Clark was the big-hitter and reliable tackler who knew exactly how to cover for his counterpart.

Edmunds could be the ‘Clark’ to Fitzpatrick’s ‘Polamalu.’ While this duo will never be on the same level, this is a pairing that should only get better with time.

I know that Pro Football Focus wasn’t high on either of these safeties this year, but both safeties are 25 years old or younger and the best years are still yet to come. With so many needs this year, the Steelers should lock up their safeties for the foreseeable future and trust these former first-round selections to continue to improve.