The Steelers rolled the dice in trading Minkah Fitzpatrick, partly in exchange for Jalen Ramsey, and the complications that follow. Trading your starting free safety in the middle of the offseason is a gamble, but they now have a new hand, and they have to play it. DC Teryl Austin admits they don’t have a plan set in stone, but that’s what this process is about.
“It’s part of the deal”, Austin told Tim Benz on the Breakfast with Benz podcast. “To me, you lose Minkah, who by name is a free safety, and you’re gaining Jalen by name, who’s a corner. But really, they’re just good football players, and you’ve got to use them and their skills accordingly”.
While Austin praised Ramsey and called him and Fitzpatrick football players, it’s not a one-for-one exchange. It’s not like the Steelers are going to spend all season with Ramsey at free safety, as camp indicates.
Ramsey will move around considerably, for sure—but in ways that Fitzpatrick didn’t, at least not significantly. He had played in the slot before, and frankly, that didn’t work out very well. Not because he struggled there, but because of what that did on the back end. And right now, the Steelers have Juan Thornhill playing safety when Ramsey isn’t—which is often.
“What I’ve got to do as a coach is, ‘Hey, what can we do with this guys that they do best and help us win games?’”, Austin said about figuring out how to fill Fitzpatrick’s shoes. “And that’s really what I’ll do, so whatever that is, we’ll just move it around. It might look a little different at times, but we’re hoping the results are good for us”.
In other words, the Steelers are still figuring out how to cover the free safety role in the wake of the Minkah Fitzpatrick trade. Given their recent history of trading players and not appropriately replacing them, the concern is fair.
The Steelers now have two former starting NFL safeties in camp in Thornhill and Chuck Clark. Neither is in the prime of his career, however, and is probably best suited as a backup. It seems a given that free safety will be the defense’s weakest link whereas, with Minkah Fitzpatrick, it was one of the strongest.
But that’s the price of acquiring a player like Jalen Ramsey. The Steelers will have to experiment and do some trial and error, even some opponent-matching to fill Fitzpatrick’s shoes. But they believe the tradeoff is worth it. And as his new teammates watch Ramsey play more and more, those in the locker room are starting to agree.
