Why Has Splash Disappeared for Minkah Fitzpatrick?

PITTSBURGH — Minkah Fitzpatrick was the most prodigious pilferer of footballs in the National Football League in 2022, with the Pittsburgh Steelers safety tying for the league lead with six interceptions last season.

This year has been a different story, though. The Steelers’ starting free safety does not have an interception through four games and has only gotten his hands on the ball for a pass breakup twice. He had 11 PBUs in 2022.

Asked about the lack of production from the team’s starting safety on Tuesday, head coach Mike Tomlin didn’t show much concern.

“Minkah’s going to make his plays,” he said. “There’s lots of games in the past where T.J. (Watt) is not getting sacks. T.J.’s gonna get sacks. Minkah’s gonna make splash plays. That’s what All Pros do.”

The longest Watt has ever gone in his career without a sack is three games. So Tomlin isn’t entirely correct there.

There’s also good reason to believe that the changes are not just some kind of slump or due to other teams refusing to target the player he’s covering out of fear. Fitzpatrick has been targeted 19 times in coverage this season through five games, according to Pro Football Focus. That’s on pace to be targeted 64 times over the course of a season. That would be a career high for Fitzpatrick. He was only targeted 36 times all of last season.

He’s also being used differently. In the Steelers’ three-safety Nickel and Dime packages, Fitzpatrick has mostly been used as a slot defender instead of as a half-field or center-field safety. He has played 101 snaps in the slot through five games. He played 112 snaps there last season, the most in his time with the Steelers. He played 379 slot snaps as a rookie with the Miami Dolphins in 2018.

So the change in usage has Fitzpatrick being targeted more, and while he hasn’t given up a touchdown, the lack of interceptions means that his passer rating while targeted has gone from an elite 72.3 in 2022 to a pedestrian 90.2 this season.

Tomlin also brushed aside concerns about the changes to Fitzpatrick’s usage this season and did not answer a question about whether those changes were based on matchups against the team’s early-season opponents or structural parts of the defense the Steelers intend to continue.

“We expect him to be Minkah no matter where we utilize him, to be quite honest with you,” Tomlin said of Fitzpatrick. “We’ve moved him around in the past as well.”