Coming off arguably the best season of his career in which he tied for the league lead in interceptions with six and earned yet another first-team All-Pro accolade and a trip to the Pro Bowl Games, Pittsburgh Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick landed at his highest spot in the NFL’s Top 100 Thursday, cracking the list at No. 18.
Fitzpatrick found himself ahead of Cleveland defensive end Myles Garrett and San Francisco tight end George Kittle in the latest release from NFL.com highlighting No. 20-11. Last year Fitzpatrick was left off the top 100, but this year he’s inside the top 20 and the best safety in the rankings so far.
Landing at No. 18, Fitzpatrick is the top safety to date, and continues a strong summer earning some top honors at the position, including from the likes of ESPN and Touchdown Wire, which both named him the top safety in football.
Fitzpatrick, entering his age-27 season, recorded 96 tackles and 11 passes defensed along with his six interceptions in 2022. He finished 10th in the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year voting.
For teammate Cameron Heyward, who landed at No. 45 in the NFL top 100, Fitzpatrick just makes game-winning plays time and time again. There was the play against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week One to force overtime, blocking an extra point. There was also the interception late on the road against Atlanta to win the game. Fitzpatrick also made a great play two years ago against the Baltimore Ravens, breaking up a pass along the sideline with a perfect play, saving the game.
“He’s able to make game-winning plays. It felt like every moment where we needed a big play, Minkah Fitzpatrick was delivering for us,” Heyward said in the video announcing Fitzpatrick at No. 18.
Since coming over to the Steelers from the Miami Dolphins in a 2019 trade, Fitzpatrick has transformed the back half of the Steelers defense under head coach Mike Tomlin and defensive coordinators Keith Butler and now Teryl Austin.
His six picks in 2022 tied for the league lead, the first Steeler to accomplish that since Mel Blount all the way back in 1975. Fitzpatrick’s picks were timely too, two coming late in the fourth quarter to close out wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Baltimore Ravens, propelling the Steelers to a 7-2 stretch run that nearly saw them make the playoffs. In fact, Fitzpatrick was the only player in the NFL this season with two interceptions in the final two minutes of games.
“To be a safety in our league, you gotta be able to cover a lot of space and I feel like Mink’s able to show different looks,” Heyward said. “A couple times Minkah changes up the play without the rest of us knowing. Or he says, ‘oh, let’s run this’ because he wants to show a different look. Minkah can be a cowboy, but when he makes things all right, who’s complaining?”
