Where does Minkah Fitzpatrick rank among the top safeties in the NFL? After a season filled with injuries and mostly playing in the box, Fitzpatrick’s stock has gone downhill, so much so that some analysts do not even view him as a Top 10 safety in the NFL anymore.
Doug Farrar of USA Today listed its Top 11 safeties in the NFL earlier this week, and Fitzpatrick was nowhere to be found on the list. Instead, he got dropped to the honorable mention category, leaving the star safety on the outside looking in on that list.
“Even when Minkah was healthy last season, he wasn’t quite what he was in 2022,” Farrar told Jarrett Bailey. “I’d love to see a big bounce-back year for him and would also love to see him excel in the deep third portion of the field where he is best.”
As it stands, Minkah Fitzpatrick needs to get back to being what made him elite in the first place. The Steelers signed DeShon Elliott, partially in hopes that his versatility could get teams to worry about where No. 39 is at all times before the snap. But when he was relegated to a box safety and slot cornerback hybrid role a year ago, it made him far less dynamic as a ballhawk. \
So, a big part of getting Fitzpatrick back on track is just playing him as a versatile chess piece. Is he an excellent box safety? Sure, he is, but that does not capitalize on what he brings to the table as a rangy ballhawk enough. So, the team went out to get Elliott to have the same versatility that someone like Terrell Edmunds brought to the duo with Fitzpatrick throughout their tenure together.