What’s behind Minkah Fitzpatrick’s drop in production in 2024?

Minkah Fitzpatrick was named to another Pro Bowl in 2024. Making the Pro Bowl is an honorary designation these days, and is often a popularity contest where the best-known players are chosen. From that perspective, Fitzpatrick’s selection made sense. His past success makes him recognizable, and provides the assumption that he remains among the best in the league at his position.

Close followers of the Pittsburgh Steelers know, however, that 2024 was not the veteran safety’s best season. Pro Bowl or not, his numbers declined, and his impact on games seemed to lessen. This article examines the factors that contributed to this, and to what degree Fitzpatrick’s play fell off in 2024.

First, the numbers. For the season, Fitzpatrick had 96 tackles, one interception and four passes defensed in 17 games. According to Next Gen Stats, he had a 93.2% tackling efficiency rate, which ranked in the Top 10 among all safeties. But his average of 5.6 tackles per game was his lowest since 2020. The interception and pass-defensed totals were career lows for any season in which he played at least 15 games. Fitzpatrick had 17 interceptions in his first 61 games in Pittsburgh, but is mired in a spell where he has just one over the past 29.

Why did the numbers drop? To find out, I studied film from five games this past season. I looked at the first two, against Atlanta and Denver; the games in weeks 10 and 11, against Washington and Baltimore; and Week 17 against Kansas City. My goal was to track games from early in the season, at the mid-point, and near the end to discern how Fitzpatrick was used, and whether changes in his usage as the season progressed impacted his production.

In the first two games of the season, Fitzpatrick lined up as a single-high safety in either cover-1 or cover-3 looks on 81 of 117 defensive snaps (69.2%). On most of these, he aligned at least 15 yards from the ball, allowing him to play deep, roam the field and take away chunk plays in the passing game. To this end, the Steelers were successful. Atlanta did not complete a single pass of over 20 yards when Fitzpatrick was playing single-high. Denver completed two — one on a reverse pass that pulled corner Donte Jackson out of position, and one on a 10-yard hitch versus man-coverage where a Broncos receiver slipped a tackle and ran for extra yardage. Fitzpatrick was at fault on neither play.

Fitzpatrick was in a two-high configuration and played some version of cover-2, cover-4 or cover-6 on 20 of 117 snaps (17.1%). He aligned anywhere between eight and twelve yards off the ball in these situations, and worked in tandem with the cornerback to his side. On the remaining sixteen snaps (13.6%), Fitzpatrick dropped into the box to play a robber or rat technique. This allowed him to operate between six and ten yards from the line of scrimmage, where he was active in defending intermediate routes and making tackles.

Pittsburgh’s philosophy changed in their games against Washington and Baltimore. Perhaps it was the quarterbacks they opposed — Jayden Daniels and Lamar Jackson — and the fact that both were threats to run the football. The Steelers played those opponents in more three-safety looks, with Fitzpatrick often in the robber role. They even aligned him like a corner against bigger personnel groupings. Fitzpatrick still played a majority of the time as a deep centerfielder — 67 of 125 snaps (53.6%) — but he was in the box far more often, taking 49 snaps there (39.2%). He played in a cover-2 or cover-4 shell just nine times (7.2%).

Moving him around more and playing him closer to the line of scrimmage did not yield better results. Fitzpatrick had 11 tackles in these two games, which was right on his average for the season, and did not record an interception or a pass defensed. The Steelers gave up six explosive pass plays in those games, which was more than normal. Several were the result of poor rotations or blown coverages as they moved their secondary after the snap. In trying to be creative to confuse Daniels and Jackson, they seemed to confuse themselves at times.

The Week 17 game against Kansas City was even worse. The Steelers deployed Fitzpatrick all over the field, and the result was a disjointed defense that struggled to get on the same page in coverage. As a result, they were picked apart by Patrick Mahomes. Fitzpatrick played all 62 defensive snaps, taking 25 as a single-high safety (40.3%), 19 from in the box (30.6%) and 18 in a two-high shell (29.0%). The diversity of his usage, and the attempt by Pittsburgh to confound Mahomes by switching and disguising coverage, backfired. The Steelers gave up 320 passing yards, three passing touchdowns, and yielded four explosives.

Ultimately, the coverage breakdowns and miscommunications on the back end cost secondary coach Grady Brown his job. Pittsburgh chose not to renew his contract, and brought back Gerald Alexander instead. Alexander directed Pittsburgh’s secondary in 2022-2023 before coaching in Las Vegas last season. He returns to the Steelers with the task of fixing their problems on the back end. The 2022 Steelers led the NFL in interceptions, and Fitzpatrick had a career-high six picks that year. This provides hope Alexander can get things back on track.

As for Fitzpatrick, there’s a Catch-22 in play. In 2024, the Steelers were most comfortable playing a static cover-3 with Fitzpatrick acting as a deep centerfielder. This limited explosive plays by the offense, but also reduced Fitzpatrick’s ability to create impact plays defensively. When the Steelers played him closer to the ball, or when they rotated him post-snap from one look to another, the communication and execution on the back end suffered. So, Pittsburgh has to decide how best to employ him. Do they want their high-profile defensive star to serve as a glorified safety net, making sure nothing gets by him deep down the field? Or do they want him closer to the football where he can be more aggressive and make more plays, but which could put the integrity of the coverage at risk?

Ideally, they should be able to do both. That’s the challenge Fitzpatrick, the coaching staff, and the secondary as a whole must master heading towards next season.

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