The Minkah Fitzpatrick trade has long been treated as one of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ cleanest wins of the modern era. It’s hard to argue with that part.
Fitzpatrick arrived from the Miami Dolphins in 2019 and immediately changed the defense, giving Pittsburgh a real star in the secondary at a time when the season could’ve fallen apart fast.
The part that looks different now is everything that came after it.
Ben Roethlisberger’s elbow injury turned 2019 into a strange, half-salvaged season. The Steelers were good enough defensively to hang around, but not good enough offensively to go anywhere meaningful. Fitzpatrick helped drag that team to 8-8, which felt impressive at the time.
Fast forward to today, and with the Steelers cycling through quarterbacks since Roethlisberger’s retirement, it brings up a valid question: Did saving that season cost Pittsburgh a shot at fixing the quarterback problem before it ever became so convoluted?
Minkah Fitzpatrick helped save a season that the Pittsburgh Steelers may have needed to lose
It’s all hypothetical, of course, but it’s the type of hindsight conversation that makes Steelers fans go “hmmmm” because the deal itself worked.
“What if they would have never made that trade back in 2019 that really helped salvage a season that quite frankly, they probably shouldn’t have salvaged in hindsight?” Still Curtain managing editor Tommy Jaggi said on the "Still Curtain" podcast.
No one is pretending the Steelers didn’t make out in this trade.
“He was excellent from the moment the Steelers got him,” Jaggi said. “Early in that 49ers game, all the splash plays he made, he just had a legitimate deserving first-team All-Pro-level season.”
Fitzpatrick’s career with Pittsburgh backs that up. In six seasons and 88 starts with the Steelers, he had 18 interceptions for 344 yards and three touchdowns, 45 passes defended, four forced fumbles, 516 tackles, and six tackles for loss. He also made four Pro Bowls and was named an All-Pro twice.
The complication is that Fitzpatrick was so good he may have changed the draft slot Pittsburgh ended up with, and the Steelers’ 2020 draft board suddenly looks a lot different. Justin Herbert went No. 6 to the Los Angeles Chargers. CeeDee Lamb went No. 17 to the Dallas Cowboys, one pick before where Pittsburgh would’ve selected at 8-8. Tristan Wirfs went No. 13 to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Still Curtain co-editor Shayne Kubas also brought up Jordan Love, who went No. 26 and wouldn’t have required the same type of trade-up.
The Steelers got great Fitzpatrick years, but never found the next quarterback. Even if they didn't take a QB that year, other players may have been more valuable. As Jaggi put it, “If I could tell you one-for-one trade, would you have rather had those years of Minkah Fitzpatrick or CeeDee Lamb? I would take CeeDee 10 times out of 10.”
Then there’s the bigger what-if. Herbert sitting behind Roethlisberger for a year could’ve completely changed Pittsburgh’s post-Ben era. Maybe then-general manager Kevin Colbert wouldn’t have pulled the trade trigger. Maybe the Chargers never let Herbert get close enough to pull it. But the Steelers never even got to find out.
That’s why the Fitzpatrick trade doesn’t look wrong, exactly. Pittsburgh won the deal in the moment, and Fitzpatrick gave them everything they could’ve asked for. But that win helped keep a broken season afloat. Years later, the trade still looks like a win, but the Steelers’ QB uncertainty makes it fair to wonder what else that pick could’ve become.
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