The Steelers are now back at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, facing down a long regular season that looks a lot more promising given how things have gone leading up to it. Finishing just above .500 last year, they anticipate being able to compete with any team in the league this season with second-year QB Kenny Pickett leading the way.
They’ve done a great deal to address what they identified as their shortcomings during the offseason, which included addressing the offensive and defensive lines as well as the secondary and the inside linebacker room, which is nearly entirely different from last year. The results have been positive so far.
Even well into the regular season and beyond, there are going to be plenty of questions that need answered. When will the core rookies get to play, or even start? Is the depth sufficient where they upgraded? Can they stand toe-to-toe with the Bengals and the other top teams in the league? We’ll try to frame the conversation in relevant ways as long as you stick with us throughout the season, as we have for many years.
Question: What made Minkah Fitzpatrick speak out and say what he said?
Plenty of brutal things have been said about the Steelers in the media. But perhaps the single most damning remark was made by S Minkah Fitzpatrick following the team’s loss to the New England Patriots, on the back of a loss to the Arizona Cardinals—both two-win teams at the time.
“I think that dudes just think that because they’re wearing the Black and Gold that they’re going to win games”, Brooke Pryor of ESPN quoted him as saying. “I think we need to check that mentality and make people realize that they got to earn that mentality and they got to earn every single blade of grass, every single splash play and every single rep that they get out there. They got to earn it”.
The question is, what caused him to say that? It’s incredibly easy to speculate about all the things we have no direct knowledge of. Many of us right now are inclined to think that it has to come from this conspiracy of inefficiency masterminded by Mike Tomlin, as if they collect extra dollars by winning no more than 10 games but no fewer than eight (if you get a tie).
We’re probably never going to know specifics. Many will cite the report of a confrontation between himself and WR Diontae Johnson a couple weeks ago. But what do we know, versus what we assume and are inclined to believe?
It sure would be nice if Fitzpatrick could elaborate on his comments, which is never going to happen for obvious reasons. What he had to say is very concerning due to its potential implications about what’s going on behind closed doors—again, none of which we know.
Was he speaking more out of frustration than reason? Is he actually right about the mentality of which he speaks? I think we can safely predict this is going to be a major topic the next time players and coaches are in front of reporters because you don’t often see those types of comments made by active players within an organization with a reputation like Pittsburgh’s.
