We knew all offseason that Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith could be on the move. What we didn't anticipate was that the Pittsburgh Steelers would be the team that poached both players from the Miami Dolphins. As part of the blockbuster trade, the Steelers were forced to give the Dolphins Minkah Fitzpatrick in return, as well as a Day 3 pick-swap in 2027.
While Fitzpatrick was once considered the best free safety in the game—particularly during his unbelievable stretch in 2019 and 2020—he hasn't been that type of player for Pittsburgh in years. The veteran safety has gone quiet with only one interception to his name since the end of the 2022 season.
Recently, I wrote about why we need to have a painful conversation about Fitzpatrick because of his egregiously large cap numbers. Quite frankly, the Steelers weren't getting a fraction of the performance that the price tag seemed to indicate.
But even noting all of this, I'd argue that the Steelers gave up the wrong player in the trade. It should have been Pat Freiermuth packing his bags for South Beach instead.
The Pittsburgh Steelers should have traded Pat Freiermuth to the Miami Dolphins instead of Minkah Fitzpatrick
The Miami Dolphins weren't simply going to give Ramsey and Smith away in a trade. They wanted a quality player in return, and they got one. But the Pittsburgh Steelers should have tried to swindle an even better trade out of this AFC opponent.
With Jonnu Smith coming to town, the Steelers have an overcrowded tight end room, which is good for Arthur Smith but bad for the dynamic of the team. Smith and Freiermuth are two players who overlap in skill set, and after handing Freiermuth a four-year, $48.4 million deal during the 2024, they could have gotten out of this.
Freiermuth's contract was questionable at the time, but now it's impossible to justify if indeed he's the number two tight end for this team. And he should be. In 2024, Jonnu Smith had a fantastic and efficient season that included 88 receptions for 884 yards and eight touchdowns. Dolphins quarterbacks had a 123.9 passer rating when throwing in his direction last season.
Instead of misusing the league's most expensive backup tight end, the Steelers could have included Freiermuth in the deal. Miami clearly showed they were interested in tight end help when they immediately went out and traded with the Giants for a retired Darren Waller after sending Smith to Pittsburgh, so they should have been interested in a player like Freiermuth.
But there's an even bigger reason Pittsburgh should have tried to make this work.
We all know you can never have too much depth when injuries strike, and nobody's complaining that a solid player like Freiermuth is still on the roster. However, if trading Freiermuth had allowed the Steelers to hold onto Minkah Fitzpatrick, this would have been a better trade-off.
Though Minkah has been a shell of his All-Pro self over the past two seasons, can you imagine what Pittsburgh's secondary would look like if he were still on the roster? Minkah could have been more threatening with better coverage from the cornerbacks in 2025 (which they should get with the additions of Jalen Ramsey and Darius Slay).
All of a sudden, the Steelers have a glaring hole on their defense. Though they fixed the cornerback position, the current projected starter at free safety is Juan Thornhill, who's coming off a disappointing season in Cleveland. In 11 games with the Browns last season, the veteran safety gave up three touchdowns and allowed an egregious passer rating of 141.7 to opposing quarterbacks.
And if we thought Minkah had issues creating takeaways over the past two seasons, Thornhill was even worse. He hasn't recorded a single interception, forced fumble, or fumble recovery since the end of the 2022 season, and he has just one tackle for a loss and four passes defended during this span.
At the end of the day, no Pittsburgh Steelers fan should be upset with the heist they were able to pull off for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith, but this trade could have went from great to elite for Steelers fans if Omar Khan was able to keep Minkah Fitzpatrick and include Pat Freiermuth as part of the deal.