The Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2021 season is over, already eliminated from the postseason after suffering a 42-21 loss at the hands of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs. They just barely made the postseason with a 9-7-1 record and a little help from their friends.
This is an offseason of major change, with the retirement of Ben Roethlisberger, the possible retirement of general manager Kevin Colbert, and the decisions about the futures of many important players to be made, such as Joe Haden, Stephon Tuitt, JuJu Smith-Schuster, and others.
Aside from exploring their options at the quarterback position, the top global priority, once again, figures to be addressing the offensive line, which they did not do quite adequately enough a year ago. Dan Moore Jr. looks like he may have a future as a full-time starter, but Kendrick Green was clearly not ready. Chukwuma Okorafor is heading into free agency, as is Trai Turner.
These are the sorts of topics among many others that we have been exploring on a daily basis and will continue to do so. Football has become a year-round pastime and there is always a question to be asked. There is rarely a concrete answer, but this is your venue for exploring the topics we present through all their uncertainty.
Question: Will the Steelers finish a contract extension with Minkah Fitzpatrick before the break after minicamp?
According to Aditi Kinkhabwala, the Steelers are not only in contract talks with Minkah Fitzpatrick, but indeed even seem to be rounding the corner. She appeared on 93.7 The Fan a couple of days ago and said that a deal was near completion.
Given the contract saga that T.J. Watt put the team through last year—or perhaps more accurately put the fans through—I’m sure it would be a not insignificant relief for many if the team were able to resolve contract talks well in advance of training camp to avoid any potential ‘hold-in’, which would pretty much be an inevitability at this point.
The good news on the contract front is that Watt and his agent already did the hard work last year by breaking precedent in getting Omar Khan and the braintrust to relinquish on their policy not to guarantee money for non-quarterbacks beyond the first year of a deal.
If a reporter can actually claim that a deal with Fitzpatrick is anywhere close to the finish line weeks before the draft, I think we can safely assume that the Steelers are being pretty transparent about the fact that they’re willing to give a player of his stature—a two-time first team All-Pro, mind you—fully guaranteed salary beyond the first year.
And if that is indeed the case, then there’s no reason to anticipate that this will be another long, drawn-out negotiation process. It’s not uncommon for the team to get significant extensions done in May and June and early July, after all.
