Now that the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2023 season is getting underway after the team finished above .500 but failing to make the postseason last year, we turn our attention to the next chapter of Steelers football and everything that entails. One thing that it means is that some stock evaluations are going to start taking on more specific contexts as we get into the season, reflecting more immediate plusses and minus rather than trends over long periods. The nature of the evaluation, whether short-term or long-term, will be noted in the reasoning section below.
Player: FS Minkah Fitzpatrick
Stock Value: Down
Reasoning: The three-time All-Pro safety has not really looked the part so far this season, by and large delivering only average play. A first run-though suggests Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans may have been his worst of the season, despite being in on a season-high 11 tackles.
The All-22 tape will reveal more once we have that in our hands, but I can’t imagine that it will necessarily make FS Minkah Fitzpatrick’s game against the Houston Texans look much better. While it wasn’t a horrible performance, it felt indicative of the day for the unit, with minimal impact even from star OLB T.J. Watt.
What stood out to me watching it live was just the number of tackles he didn’t make, the frequency with which he was observed on the ground near the ball carrier. I can’t recall another game I’ve watched him in that featured him at such a disadvantage so often.
I’m sure there are going to be those who will stress that Fitzpatrick is the least of the Steelers’ worries. I agree with that. At the same time, we have known for years that this is a defense that is carried by its stars. Fitzpatrick hasn’t really looked like a star so far this year. Last week was his best game of the year by a pretty wide margin.
The entire secondary has not been a strength. Outside of some opportunistic interceptions last week, these guys have made very few plays. Fitzpatrick has had his, don’t get me wrong, and his recent penalties and reputation as a dirty player have obviously been a joke.
But if this defense is going to be anything like the Steelers need it to be, especially while Cameron Heyward is down, they are going to need Fitzpatrick at his best every week. Can anybody really claim that they are getting that?
Meanwhile, the Houston Texans took the Steelers apart through the air, rookie C.J. Stroud throwing for over 300 yards. No, I wouldn’t put a whole lot of blame on Fitzpatrick for that—Patrick Peterson and Levi Wallace contributed to that—but he did fail to contain several yards-after-catch opportunities by missing tackles or taking unfavorable angles.
The Steelers have one more game before the bye week. I don’t think things will magically get better after that in a similar fashion to last season. They just need to fix this on the fly, because what they’re working with right now is not cutting it.
