The 2023 season was a rather trying one for Pittsburgh Steelers star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick as he battled multiple injuries, missing a handful of games. When he was on the field, he wasn’t his usual self, failing to record an interception on the year for the first time as a Steeler.
Now, entering the 2024 season, Fitzpatrick is healthy and aiming to get back to his All-Pro ways, and Pro Football Focus highlighted Fitzpatrick as the Steelers’ best bounce-back candidate Friday morning.
“Following a spectacular 2022, Fitzpatrick wasn’t as good in 2023, accumulating a 73.3 overall grade and just a 67.9 coverage mark. The safety might not have looked like himself because of hamstring and knee problems,” PFF’s Bradley Locker writes regarding Fitzpatrick as a bounce-back candidate for the Steelers. “When healthy, it’s hard to contest that Fitzpatrick is one of the best defensive backs in the entire league.
“This season gives Fitzpatrick a clean slate, and with it should follow another season of elite tackling and ball productivity in the Steelers’ back seven.”
In 2022, Fitzpatrick was a first-team All-Pro, earned a trip to the Pro Bowl and received some Defensive Player of the Year buzz, an award that ultimately went to teammate T.J. Watt.
But the 2023 season was a tough one for Fitzpatrick. He played in just 10 games, suffering a hamstring injury early in the Week 8 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, causing him to miss the next four games.
Once he returned to the lineup in Week 13 against the Arizona Cardinals, he ended up breaking his hand, playing through the injury. Two weeks later against the Indianapolis Colts Fitzpatrick suffered a knee injury, knocking him out of the 30-13 loss and eventually ending his regular season, though he did return for the Wild Card loss to the Bills.
Dealing with that many injuries though, while also having to move around quite a bit to help cover for deficiencies in other areas led to a quiet season from Fitzpatrick. He had 64 tackles, which is really solid in 10 regular season games, but he didn’t have the ball productivity many have become accustomed to so far in his career.
For the most part, Fitzpatrick was solid on the back end, covering up a lot of issues for the Steelers, especially early in the season. But he wasn’t the usual Minkah Fitzpatrick as poor play around him in the secondary and an inability to stop the run in front of him without Cameron Heyward in the lineup forced him to play a similar role that he did in 2021. Not a good one for him, or the Steelers.
Remember, that 2021 season there was a lot of debate as to if Fitzpatrick was just a flash in the pan for the Steelers, considering he had just two interceptions on the year, one forced fumble and one tackle for loss, a far cry from the impact plays he typically makes.
The 2023 season was similar from that aspect, though the injuries didn’t help.
The Steelers added safety DeShon Elliott in free agency to help strengthen the safety room, giving them a big hitter in the secondary, one who can play in the box when needed. Along with Elliott, Damontae Kazee returns for his third season in Pittsburgh, so depth and talent is there around Fitzpatrick, which should allow the Steelers to put Fitzpatrick in positions to succeed again.
That should lead to a bounce-back season from the perennial All-Pro.
