Steelers Now
This offseason has been anything but normal for the Pittsburgh Steelers. A rare blockbuster player-for-player trade set the NFL world ablaze last week as the team made another splash move to acquire Jalen Ramsey in a trade that jettisoned long-time defensive pillar Minkah Fitzpatrick. Such a move has brought about plenty of conversation about whether this is an all-in sort of tactic from what is typically a risk-averse organization. Time will tell. But for now, figuring out how Teryl Austin and Mike Tomlin will construct their new-look defense is a fascinating exercise worth exploring.
So, why did the Steelers make this trade? We know that the league traditionally values the cornerback position far more heavily than the safety spot. But to me, the answer that makes the most sense is that Pittsburgh views Ramsey as a more flexible chess piece, given his rare ability to both cover different body types across the field, be a force player in the run game, and even sprinkle in some splash as a blitzer. Even at 30 years old, his skill set is unique and a glove-like fit for the modern NFL. Can this coaching staff maximize that? We’ll see.
On the flip side, there are some faulty narratives floating around about Fitzpatrick’s play over the past two seasons. Even without the splash plays in the turnover bucket, he was still an objectively good player that provided value on what has been a good defense. A common frustration among Steelers fans has been the amount of snaps that he spent off the broadcast angle as a center fielder in their middle field closed defensive structures. That’s understandable, but whether a valid complaint or not, that was their vision of maximizing his skill set. Now, as one iteration of football comes to a close, a new reality is set to begin: a world without Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Today, we’re going to take a look at one very specific role that he held within the Steelers defense as the hook/curl defender. Pittsburgh liked to deploy him in this area on third downs specifically, and his ability to perform well in this role was one of the reasons that their unit finished second in third-down percentage in 2024. Let’s look at a few examples of this concept.
— Derrick (@Steelers_DB) July 6, 2025
This is a very basic example of the Steelers going from 2-to-1 at the start of the snap with Fitzpatrick rolling down to the second level of the defense. His landmark is about 12 yards just outside the hash. From there, he’s playing with zone eyes and vision on the quarterback. The technique is pretty straightforward from there; if the quarterback is looking away from him towards the middle, he melts inside accordingly.
He’s able to blanket the deep sit route, forcing the quarterback to hold on to the ball, and it results in a coverage sack for Alex Highsmith. Because of their belief in their talent up front, the Steelers...
