It was an offseason of change and surprising moves for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Once the 2024 campaign ended, General Manager Omar Khan and the team's decision-makers set out on a quest to completely revamp the roster. There were a plethora of acquisitions and those came through several different avenues. The latest transaction of the big moves was sending Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith. This left a hole in the secondary on defense, so many have wondered why the team would agree to the trade after all of the other recent attempts to solidify Teryl Austin's unit.
The Steelers traded for Fitzpatrick back in the beginning of the 2019 campaign and sent Miami a first-round pick in the deal. The safety was phenomenal for several seasons, but his production fell off a bit throughout the last couple of years. Time will tell which organization will win version two of a Fitzpatrick deal, but overall, plenty have wondered how the two franchises came to a final agreement.
On the most recent episode of Ben Roethlisberger's Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast, the retired quarterback talked about a lot of the happenings when it comes to Pittsburgh's offseason. When talking about the Fitzpatrick deal, the future Hall of Fame signal-caller was a little perplexed that the safety would have been okay with a trade, given how much better the team has gotten in recent months. It's possible that Fitzpatrick actually wanted to be sent packing.
"I think there may be something to — maybe Minkah wanted out," Roethlisberger theorized. "Maybe there's something to that because, why? I can't imagine you'd want to leave when you know you've got this, you know? I think there's something there. Maybe there was some sort of — I have no idea — just speculating."
Roethlisberger was present in the Steelers' locker room for 18 seasons, so it's definitely notable when he has a theory about what could be going on in the Steel City. While the NFL is a business, Fitzpatrick was a respected leader for the Steelers, which is why the trade took a lot of fans and analysts by surprise. It may not be public knowledge, but it's always possible that the safety truly did want to get himself into a fresh, but familiar, situation.
The Steelers put the defense in an intriguing spot when the decision was made to get rid of Fitzpatrick. The safety spot may be the weakest position on the team as a whole aside from the wide receiving corps. Roethlisberger's theory could have some legs to it because the trade came out of nowhere in an extremely dead part of the 2025 NFL offseason. If Fitzpatrick vocalized that he wanted a change of scenery, he could have been the final piece to the puzzle.
Pittsburgh's acquisitions of both Ramsey and Smith will give the roster a great boost, but if Fitzpatrick wasn't involved, there would have had to have been a lot of draft capital sent to Miami. Instead, the team that originally drafted Fitzpatrick got him back and both organizations, and the players included, seem to be happy that the front offices were able to get it done.
It won't feel too good in the Steel City if Fitzpatrick is back to being a ballhawk with the Dolphins, but the performances of both Ramsey and Smith could also make that kind of scenario irrelevant.
Steelers Are Ready To Make Some Noise In A Competitive AFC
The moves made by Khan and co. throughout the 2025 offseason paint a very clear picture. Things aren't being done the way that they used to be done in Pittsburgh, and for good reason. No playoff wins since the 2016 campaign has led to a lot of criticism, and rightfully so. If the tide does turn, Fitzpatrick won't be able to experience it, but no one may ever know if that was because he wanted to be traded as Roethlisberger theorized.
