Minkah Fitzpatrick part of the blockbuster trade between the Steelers and Dolphins
The Pittsburgh Steelers are ending June with a bang after the news of the trade for cornerback Jalen Ramsey became official. But the trade with the Miami Dolphins was more than just the Steelers picking up Ramsey’s hefty contract.
As the dust settles on the deal, the Steelers and Dolphins also swapped players, one of which being All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, who will head back to the team who drafted him out of Alabama in Round 1.
Here are the current details of the trade:
Steelers get:
– CB Jalen Ramsey
– TE Jonnu Smith
Dolphins get:
– Minkah Fitzpatrick
– 5th Round Pick for a 7th to Pittsburgh
The Steelers address a need at cornerback, but now also have questions surrounding the safety position; however, this is just a week after the team extended DeShon Elliott to a new 3-year deal.
The addition of Jonnu Smith reunited the TE with Arthur Smith, and gives the team a new versatile threat in the passing game for Aaron Rodgers.
Who wins the trade? That has yet to be seen, but it is hard not to argue the Steelers two new players could have a big impact on the team in 2025 and beyond.
Stay tuned to SCN for more on this trade as it becomes official.
One way to make the money work, sorry Minkah. Steelers have a number of less-well blocking TEs and one fewer established S. This is truly different.
Welp, I suppose if your not going to put minkah in position to be the playmaker he can be you might as well move him.
I don’t understand this one right now, but on the surface it looks like a fairly even swap of DB’s plus a freebie “move TE”. Still that contract- yeeeesh.
Seems dumb to me, would hope to be proven wrong in stadium.
What’s really odd is Minkah heading back to Miami. If he was in on the front end- that’s a total 180 to where his heart was when he left them. And if he wasn’t, I can’t even imagine the rage he is feeling.
Knowing the way the Steelers work, he probably was brought on board. I don’t really know how- but the past tells me they all found a way.
Different regime in Miami now? I gotta think they had conversations, but that coach is not a lock to be there next year, so maybe Minkah just wanted out of Pittsburgh?
Does this mean TJ’s deal is basically hammered out?
Not necessarily.
Yeah it could mean the opposite. I’m trying to stay positive.
Me too, brother.
Remember. Contract extensions have very little impact on this years salary cap.
These moves mean nothing as it relates to TJs contract.
Sure, but the money in that Ramsey deal will not mesh well with a Watt extension.
That’s untrue, go to over the cap and look at the cap space for 2026. Obviously the recent trades and a possible Watt extension change the cap space but as of yesterday the Steelers had 86 million in cap space. That’s a substantial amount especially for Pittsburgh
Not worried about T.J.’s contract, worried about who is playing S (and WR2). Pgh is clearly worse at S now, and how CB will be divided.
I’m just knee jerk reacting, and thinking later.
Same here, this is a bit of stuff at once. Camp will be interesting.
A little unsettling, but I’ll be curious to see the details Dave puts out later. Cautiously optimistic or else Khan is going to have to perform some more of his patented black magic juju.
Some juju already happened, Fitzpactrick off the books, too.
Does Patterson make it past this roster shake up??
I’m not thinking so, though Art Smith clearly likes Patterson.
I think Meatrock (ok: Meatball; Connor Heyward) should be looking over his shoulder; he survives if they deem him a ST captain level asset. I don’t think there is room for 2 of that role (Killebrew)
Very interested to see the cap breakdown on this for Ramsey’s contract. The Dolphins paid him a lot of guaranteed money, and spread it out over some void years. According to AI (take with a huge grain of salt); we’d owe him the following between 25-28:
I’d *assume* this would be in reality up to a 3 year deal. Looking forward to some really SCN analysis on this.
Wow. Those numbers aren’t bad.
…well, I’m not sure I trust them. Looking forward to what Dave has to say on it; I *do* trust him.
Steelers will pay $19.6MM to Ramsey in 2024.
It’s 2025 :D. I’ve seen a lot of numbers floating about. I’ll wait for Dave.
Wow…this is incredible. I tell you what- there is no way on God’s green earth that 2018 me would ever believe the kinds of off-seasons Steelers fans would be witnessing today. Wow! Talk about head on a swivel…
So, my guess is the contract on Ramsey will prove not bad and on the TE front- maybe, maybe Arthur Smith has visions of the 2012 Patriots dancing in his head?
This is such exciting stuff.
So, Deshon Elliot and- I suppose- a lot of confidence in Juan Thornhill? Or is Ramsey settling into the Rod Woodson career arc so the CB’s are still Slay and Porter. Or is that a “No way” for Jalen so Porter and Slay are competing? Or is it “Bye bye Beanie” from the starting line up and Slay is our new slot?
Questions, questions, so many exciting Steelers questions! What an off-season!!
I don’t like it. When you trade away the best player you “lose” the trade. Taking on Ramsey (31) at this point and his salary seems pointless. Maybe we see Ramsey playing some centerfield.
The Jonnu Smith thing doesn’t matter to me or move the needle.
I just know the Steelers lost an All-Pro.
This is how I feel about it. Steelers got older in short term, too. Madden-style move, all-in. I think Ramsey plays safety in part–he’s worse at tackling than Fitzpatrick lately (meaning the ast two seasons).
I don’t know that Ramsey was worse at tackling. CB to Safety is hard to compare as far as volume of opportunity is concerned. And I just looked up that Ramsey had 60+ tackles last year and 6 tackles for loss. I think that’s really solid for the position.
And 12 missed tackles, at CB, cf. Fitzpatrick’s 9 at safety. Safe to say Ramsey’s gonna be some kind of interesting study, regardless of position. Maybe Ramsey will turn Woodson, but not guaranteed.
Yeah- but many of us were surprised and trying to either explain why Minkah Fitzpatrick was in the pro-bowl and/ or mildly conceding there was a good case he shouldn’t have been given his lack of impact plays.
The fanbase could have been right or wrong about that reaction, but I’m still not absolutely sure we got the worse player. And, even if head to head on that end Minkah is the stronger player, I’m not sure there’s such a vast gap that it accounts for an 800+ yard, pro bowl, receiving TE to boot.
However, Jonnu doesn’t block well, and is aged. Pgh may like 13 personnel, but they’re not good at it, yet.
True.
A few things:
This was both a football decision and a business decision. The team got better on paper (see how that goes in the season) and it was a good business decision financially.
I like your points, especially concerning their relative age and the value of CB over safety. It does seem that unless the safety is absolutely spectacular, their field impact is markedly lower in general. We see this real world evidence in salary, the draft, etc…hard to see this as a bad trade. Maybe a pretty solid swap, but I just have to give the edge, all in all, to the Steelers.
Miami dumped salary, Vinny, that’s all. Just hope Pgh gets a playoff win in ’26, that’s the main, short-term goal. Nothing else to see here. $19.6MM for Ramsey, $12MM for Jonnu. Eager to see their cap hits later.
Actually, they “dumped” a pro-bowl tight end and- no matter how you want to slice it- a CB significantly more capable than either of the ones the Steelers had on the field last year.
There’s plenty to see here beyond salary issues, if one chooses to not shut their eyes to some things. (And we still don’t know what the Steelers negotiated.) Most past history would suggest the Khan-man did not get taken on a financial basis.
Hope so, Vinny, and Miami wanted to retain neither of Ramsey nor Jonnu, yes? We’ll wish you’re proven right re Ramsey, open-eyed.
And while the cap hits are unknown… their salaries are known. $19.6MM and $12MM Pgh will pay. It is TBD if Pgh has been “taken”, yes?! Let them play…R-E-L-A-X. Get your popcorn and kielbasa ready.
a true Pittsburgh Steelers fan, since the 70’s I wish somebody explain to me why Steelers Omar Khan traded the Steelers best safety in Minkah Fitzpatrick for a CB in Jalen Ramsey who lost a step now the Steelers will have to pay Jalen Ramsey the rest of his guaranteed money on his contract and TE Jonnu Smith is garbage the Steelers already have two good TE’s in Pat Freirmuth and Darnell Washington
Honestly, Jonnu > Freiermuth in passing game, neither block well, though. Pgh has two similar guys, now.
My thoughts on trade:
Before I say what I am about to say, I will state that I would have loved Minkah to stay a Steeler until he retired. Minkah was one of my favorite players on the team. Given that, too many fans will be thinking with their hearts and not their minds.
If the steelers don’t sign a safety and Thornhill steps into the role, the pfff grades are as follows: Fitzpatrick- 74., Thornhill- 65.5. Their pass coverage grades were only 3 points apart. PFF scores suck, I know, but it has become the most accepted way to compare players. Yeah, Thornhill is a downgrade, but not as huge as you might think on the field considering what the Steelers ask of their free safety. Considering Minkah will make 15.5 mill in 2025, that is a lot of money to pay a guy for what the Steelers ask of their free safety in their defensive scheme. But there are still better graded safeties sitting on their couches, so another move could be made.
Ramsey is still a major upgrade at Corner. The Steelers best starting corner last year graded out as 20 points lower than Ramsey. Not 3.4, not 8.5 points, but 20 points lower. You can say PFF scores are BS but they are still a measuring stick and that is coming up well enough short to actually say there is a pretty good difference. Ramsey was the #1 blitzing CB last year and the #6 CB against the run.
Off the field, Minkah seems a great person and is a team leader, and that will be missed. But lets not forget with still have great leadership on the defense with TJ and Cam. You can even through Highmsith in there as he has been with the team 5-6 years. It’s not like we are lacking for defensive leadership.
The TE, Junna Smith, is not a great Run Blocker. We already have a plethora of great run blocking tight ends. He was the #6 ranked TE at the end of last year in PFF. There is nothing wrong with adding a TE who is a top end receiver. He gives a nice little upgrade to the passing game.
Overall, personal feelings about the players aside, the Steelers just got better on paper (its a wait and see if that translates on the field). a 16th ranked corner is going to help the pass defense more than a 4th ranked safety playing the single deep safety in this pass happy league. Our corners last year were getting beat so quickly that Minkah could not get over in time to stop the big play. 15.5 million is a big overpay for a single Deep safety in the Steelers current defensive scheme, precipitously so. As sad as it made me to see Minkah go, this made football sense overall and business sense, probably more business sense. The NFL is a business first and a fan’s sport second.
a true Pittsburgh Steelers fan, since the 70’s the Steelers have CB Cory Trice Jr. he’s much cheaper than CB Jalen Ramsey
You talked about him and now he is injured again. He has more injuries that than the Steelers have playoff losses in the last 6 years (going back to his collegiate days)
You are correct in that you can’t count on Trice. He hasn’t shown anything on the field at this point. He has received an NFL helmet 6 times for 193 defensive snaps. The only thing good you can say is that 165 of those came in the last three games. If you want to make the argument that Echols and Trice makes Ramsey unnecessary than I will listen even if he is still likely an upgrade.
wow
My initial take is this shows just how desperate the Steelers are to win a playoff game, acting, possibly against their long term interests. They seemed desperate to get Jonnu Smith. Sadly, they could have got him last year for less.
While reports say this was actually two seperate deals, it’s hard to see this as anything but Miami cutting costs they were going to eat with Minkah being the bargaining chip to get that done. Miami was reported to be getting rid of Ramsey for a long time now, but with his age and high salary there was little interest so they used the Steelers desperation for Smith to pull the trigger.
This was reporting in April, before the draft:
The salary cap cost to trade Ramsey will be hefty for Miami but they do have multiple options regarding the timing. The team essentially has one window to trade him during the draft and a second window that runs up until August 30th at which point the team would need to pay out an $18.98 million bonus to Ramsey or do some salary cap work to try to create an in-season trade market.
For a team acquiring Ramsey they would be on the hook for a virtually guaranteed $21 million for 2025, which would be the 7th highest salary in the NFL for a corner.
As far as the Steelers go, it seems like an awful lot of moving parts to now try to bring together in a very short time to put a team in place that can win at least one game in the playoffs.
And those moving parts are on both sides of the field as they will now have one safety from last year and one CB from last year who will see significant playing time. Expect a lot of big plays against the defense early on while those guys learn to gel.
They chose Elliott and Thornhill over Minkah. That seems to ignore how much Minkah allowed Elliot to blossom last year and have a career year. Will these two safeties be able to play together or will we see somethig reminiscient of when Mitchell was brought in.
Likewise, suddenly they have three premium corners. But do the three work togehter in concert. I can’t beleive Slay is too happy about this trade. Then there are the young guys behind them who might be the future, but will not get the reps to show it. Guys like Trice and Bishop as well as the guy they drafted in the 7th round they were talking about being a big contributor.
Smith is at least familiar with Arthur Smiths offense, but the Rodgers factor is going to likely come into play there as well. What that would seem to imply to me is that this will be a team run by two coaches. Tomlin will need to suceed complete control of the offense to Smith as he will have his hands full with making the defense perform to the best of it’s abilities (hopefully top five). If Smith and Rodgers but heads, this could be a failure. There are now a lot of mouths to feed on that offense (Metcalf, the three RBs, Smith, ‘muth and whoever the number two receiver will end up being, if they ever play – maybe it will be Big Skow whose been getting a lot of buzz).
Feel bad for Washington as his playing time looks to be seriously curtailed. Wouldn’t be suprised if they traded him. At best he may only see time as a pseudo swing tackle.
I agree w/you, e->20, up to Washington, he’s Pgh’s sole blocking TE, no trade for him. Pgh has a glut of mainly pass-catchingTEs. Muth likely is also miffed, aside from Slay. Yes, moves are all-in, short term style, as you say. Disheartening.
Pass catchers that aren’t “pass catchers”. There is no Kelce, Kittles, Hockenson, Andrews or LaPorta in that room. What they have are guys on par with Kmet or Ernst. They are ok with the potential to be a little better with better QB play.
Yes.
JSegursky, those TEs you list do everything… I miss Heath.
There aren’t a lot of Gronks out there walking around. I wonder how good Washington could be if unleashed.
I am w/you and Junebug, is Pgh?!
Washington should get the snaps he got last year along with more targets. Don’t fix what ain’t broke.
I think you make some interesting points, e….maybe there is some “desperation” on the Steelers. But I think that’s too strong a word overall. I think it’s all about perspective and yours makes me think. But here’s mine on what you brought up:
So, just a few idle thoughts…
If Fitzpatrick were held in as high esteem by the coaching staff as seems to be the case with a large chunk of the fan base, I don’t see Khan moving him out of town. And I’m not suggesting they wanted him gone. I’m just wondering if his availability signals that the staff are now a bit more underwhelmed with his play than we all just assumed.
And perhaps the communication issues of the past couple of seasons in the secondary were more (not all, but more) of a Minkah thing than has seemed obvious.
Finally, the staff may have really fallen in love with somebody or somebodies who were picked up either in the draft or free agency to make Fitzpatrick even remotely expendable.
Yeah, not Minkah, comms were poor with Donte Jackson those last five games of ’24, per Derek Bell. Which is why Jackson wasn’t kept.
Regardless, Pgh is worse now at safety, unless something changes or is demonstrated later.
Fair enough. I just don’t think it’s as clear cut as that, and the veiled comments from both Queen and Elliot late last season—among other issues—can certainly be interpreted in that light. And I’m just not convinced the Steelers think they’re worse now at safety. Something had gone south with Fitzpatrick before Fitzpatrick went south to Miami.
Possibly so, F-AH, he’s gone, that’s true. Management appoves, clearly. Pgh has switched things up at cost as they’re paying more today. Need to see some wins in stadiums, next.
I posted a month or so ago that a Minkah trade was inconceivable. Now that it’s all coming into focus I’m wondering how far Rooney/Kahn/Weidl/Tomlin are willing to go for 2025. We bought our ticket, I guess this is the ride!
Great discussion.
To be honest, I think that Jonnu Smith is what makes this trade a win for the Steelers. We can all agree that Minkah Fitzpatrick, though he is still plenty young, just hasn’t been special over the past couple of years. Jalen Ramsey’s been pretty good over that span but he’s at an age where CBs start trending down. In the end, Fitzpatrick for Ramsey is probably a wash unless Minkah starts lighting it up again with the team switch.
Jonnu Smith is coming off of two pretty good years. While he’s not a kid, the arrow is pointing firmly up. His success, or not, just may determine the winner of this trade
I wonder how Pat Freiermuth is digesting this trade? I know that Arthur Smith’s offense calls for a ton of TE involvement but still, Jonnu Smith is starter material as is Freiermuth.
PF88’s internet comments were positive toward Jonnu.