The Pittsburgh Steelers began their mandatory minicamp and Diontae Johnson and Minkah Fitzpatrick are both in attendance. Here’s the difference between the two.
After Diontae Johnson didn’t show up for the start of the Steelers OTAs, fans started losing their minds and jumping to conclusions. We knew that Johnson is entering the final year of his rookie contract and his agent is certainly not oblivious to what the going rate of a 1,000-yard wide receiver in 2022.
Eventually, Johnson silenced critics and the media by showing up halfway through voluntarily organized team activities. The question then became whether or not the talented wide receiver would be present at Steelers mandatory minicamp.
It turns out that Johnson is not choosing to take the route that many predicted. He showed up on time for minicamp and is participating fully with his team for the time being. Failure to show up could have resulted in significant fines.
Minkah Fitzpatrick — who was present throughout OTAs — was also on hand for the start of Steelers mandatory minicamp. However, his approach appears to be a bit different.
Like Johnson, Fitzpatrick is entering a contract year and is seeking a lucrative new extension. While Minkah reportedly went through positional drills with his Steelers teammates, he was apparently an on-field bystander for team portions of the practice, according to Joe Rutter of TribLIVE.com.
Is Minkah Fitzpatrick going to miss Steelers training camp?
I fully expect Minkah Fitzpatrick to be present at Steelers training camp. However, don’t be surprised if his involvement is just the barebones minimum — just like it was for T.J. watt in 2021.
After earning First-Team All-Pro honors in 2019 and 2020, Fitzpatrick’s play took a step back in 2021 and he lacked the splash we became used to seeing. Regardless, his agent knows his value to this team, and it seems like he could be poised to ‘hold in’, if you will.
Watt did something very similar last season — missing the entirety of the NFL preseason before eventually walking into the building and signing his contract. The competitor in him wanted to make sure he rejoined his teammates in full capacity before the start of the season.
Despite the All-Pros, Minkah isn’t quite on the same level as T.J. Watt, as the Steelers star is the reigning NFL Defensive Player of the Year and back-to-back Pittsburgh Steelers MVP (as voted on by the team).
Regardless, this may not prevent him and his agent from conducting a ‘hold-in’ this summer in an event to avoid injury. Fitzpatrick has a base salary of $10.6 million this year on the fifth-year option, via Over the Cap, but a lofty long-term deal is the goal, and suffering a major injury before that happens would be devastating.
Obviously, a hold-in isn’t guaranteed to happen for either Minkah Fitzpatrick or Diontae Johnson, but they have made it very clear that they want contract extensions and both players want to be paid like the top guys in the league at their position. It will be interesting to see if the Steelers address either contract before the start of the 2022 season.