With the Pittsburgh Steelers on a break before heading to Latrobe for training camp, we’re going to take a look at our expectations for this upcoming season and offer some over/under statistics to weigh in on. The offense wasn’t overly prolific last year, but the defense did put up some big numbers.
That can change in 2023 now that the offense is beginning to mature around second-year quarterback Kenny Pickett, though, and if the Steelers can keep T.J. Watt healthy all year, that will only help everybody be more productive—perhaps especially the defensive backs. So each day we’ll project one stat line, whether for a player or a unit, and share our thoughts before asking you to weigh in on whether you think they will hit the over or the under.
It is your job to project whether or not the over or under will be hit. At the end of the series we will be tallying up the answers for each installment to create a collective pre-training camp snapshot of where you stand heading into the 2023 season.
Stat Line: Five interceptions for Minkah Fitzpatrick
Minkah Fitzpatrick has been in Pittsburgh for four seasons now. He has had a least five interceptions in two of those years, with four interceptions in another. He is coming off his best season, including a league-leading six interceptions, in 2022.
He has already proven amply capable, both in terms of ball skills and coverage skills, to pick off a high rate of passes. Even for the best, however, turnovers can be a spotty figure from year to year, as too many variables affect how many you get.
The Steelers will put Fitzpatrick in opportunities to make plays, however, and there is nothing lined up for the 2023 defense that should really impinge upon his ability to play his game, unlike the 2021 season, which required him to play more in the box.
Besides, it’s not like consistent numbers are impossible. For example, Ed Reed intercepted five or more passes six out of seven years to start his career, and he missed a lot of time in the year in which he failed to hit that mark. Fitzpatrick is indisputably among the best at what he does in the game right now. He is in the prime of his career, on top of that.
At the same time, the secondary is also adjusting to a lot of change. His longtime starting safety, Terrell Edmunds, is gone. He’s played his entire career in Pittsburgh lining up next to Edmunds, so that is a big adjustment. Also gone is Cameron Sutton, even Arthur Maulet. He’ll have to get used to working with a lot of new faces, which means a learning curve, hesitance, covering for others, and simply a reduction in the number of playmaking opportunities and risk-taking than would otherwise be possible.
So what do you think? Taking these factors and others into consideration, are you taking the over or under on five interceptions for Minkah Fitzpatrick? Answer below and at the end of the series we’ll tally all your answers together to see where you stand before we get to training camp.
