While he is focused on the present, Minkah Fitzpatrick started off his first press conference since re-joining the Dolphins by officially closing the lastest chapter in his football journey.
Fitzpatrick, who was surprisingly traded from Pittsburgh last month in a deal that included fellow Pro Bowlers Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith, addressed his silence on social media since the trade went down. He also formally bid adieu to Pittsburgh while discussing his future with the Dolphins, who drafted him back in 2018 before trading him to the Steelers the following season.
“One, I’m not a big social media guy. You ain’t gonna see me on there, period, point blank,” Fitzpatrick said. “Two, in no way, shape or form was that an expression of frustration about coming back to Miami. Three, I want to thank the city of Pittsburgh. The fans of Pittsburgh. You guys treated me very well. I enjoyed my time there and played with some great teammates. It was very unfortunate the way things ended, but, you know, it’s a part of the business, and I’m extremely, extremely excited to be a Miami Dolphin again.
“My silence was not a reflection of how I felt about this team or this organization,” Fitzpatrick continued. “I’ve been here in the building for about a week now, and I’m extremely excited about this season. I think we have a very, very high ceiling. We have a lot of young, hungry, passionate guys, combined with a lot of guys who played a lot of games and have a lot of accolades. So this is an organization that I’m extremely proud to be a part of. And again, my silence was nothing to do with with my feelings towards the Dolphins organization.”
Fitzpatrick’s comments took place about a week after Steelers coach Mike Tomlin and general manager Omar Khan discussed the trade for the first time. While neither one got into the specifics regarding the trade, both alluded to the difficulty of trading a player of Flitzpatrick’s caliber.
“His experience here, and the production that he gave us speaks for itself,” Tomlin said during the first day of Pittsburgh’s training camp. “But you’ve got to make tough choices, and obviously I’ve been talking glowingly about two top-notch players that we acquired. But that doesn’t lessen the impact of a player like Minkah.”
“I don’t know if it was necessarily [about] moving on from Minkah,” added Khan. “We had an opportunity to acquire two Pro Bowl players that we felt that where we are as a team made sense for us. We have a lot of respect for Minkah. He was a great football player for a lot of years for us. We wish him the best, but it was really an opportunity acquire these two players that we think can help us.“
Making the trade unique was the fact that, outside of Antonio Brown, the Steelers had never before traded a player as good as Fitzpatrick, who was a five-time Pro Bowler and three-time All-Pro during his six seasons with the team. While he was an extremely productive player for Pittsburgh, Fitzpatrick’s versatility is what truly made him stand out as he excelled in several different roles over those six seasons.
While it didn’t end on the best of notes, Fitzpatrick made it clear that he is appreciative of his time with the Steelers and for the support he received from their passionate fan base. He also made it clear that he is excited to return to Miami, where he will be tasked with helping a secondary that has been ravaged by injures during the first two weeks of training camp.