When the Pittsburgh Steelers pulled off a blockbuster trade with the Miami Dolphins, nobody expected Minkah Fitzpatrick to be part of the deal. The Steelers have had their eyes on trade block candidates Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith, and they were able to land both, but sending Minkah packing was something we never thought this team would consider.
But there could be a reason for this... and one that's darker than fans expected.
Shortly after the trade was announced on Monday, former Steelers writer and podcaster David Todd made a serious claim about Fitzpatrick that nobody saw coming.
"Nobody named names, but when guys on the team were talking about 10 guys doing one thing and one guy not doing his job, they were talking about Minkah," Todd posted on X. "This move is a result of that."
Talk about a bombshell. In the public eye, Minkah Fitzpatrick has always been viewed as a savvy veteran leader—one who has always put himself on the team for the ultimate prize: to try to win a Super Bowl. But according to the latest report, that may not have been the case.
The Pittsburgh Steelers needed to include Minkah Fitzpatrick in the trade with the Miami Dolphins
I don't want to speak on Minkah Fitzpatrick's character. We don't know how much truth (if any) there is to these claims, and we likely won't find that out unless coaches or players speak out about this (which they rarely do). We can say, however, that there were reports of a player who wasn't getting with the program over the past few years. We all just assumed that was former Steelers receiver George Pickens.
Either way, trading Fitzpatrick may have been more necessary than anyone thought. Even if Minkah wasn't the one guy on the team that the other ten starters were talking about, the Steelers could no longer justify his outrageous salary cap numbers.
Since restructuring Fitzpatrick's four-year, $72.9 million contract extension that he received during the 2022 offseason, the three-time All-Pro safety has had an egregiously high cap number of $21.355 million in 2024, per Over the Cap. In 2025, the Steelers were set for Minkah to cost the team $22.355 against the cap, and that number would further increase to a $24.455 cap hit in 2026—the final year of his deal.
The Steelers were no longer able to justify this for a player who has been quiet in the secondary. Since the end of the 2022 season, Fitzpatrick has recorded just one interception. Meanwhile, in 2024, the former star safety was credited with allowing 540 receiving yards and four touchdowns while giving up a passer rating of 127.6 to opposing quarterbacks.
Either way you slice it, the Pittsburgh Steelers were right to move on from Minkah Fitzpatrick, but nobody ever even considered that a player we viewed as a veteran leader could have been part of the problem.