Mike Florio ‘Ready For Studies To Come Out’ About Why Steelers Traded Minkah Fitzpatrick

The Steelers trading Minkah Fitzpatrick surprised many people—and has them wondering about the rest of the story. While many broached the idea of trading Fitzpatrick before, it didn’t seem likely. There may have been a rumbling or two about some issues, but nothing to raise alarms. The only genuine concern was his play on the field, at least relative to his salary.

It may well be simply that the Steelers didn’t view Minkah Fitzpatrick as worth what they were paying him anymore. They may have felt Jalen Ramsey would be more valuable than what he could still offer. Yet Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk can’t help but wonder what we might hear next.

“Something weird was going on”, he insisted on 93.7 The Fan. “Mike Tomlin is the king of taking something that for any other team would be out in the open and we’d know, and it would be full-blown dysfunction, and they keep a lid on it. I’m waiting for the reports to come out as we get closer to training camp about whatever the issues were between the Steelers and Minkah Fitzpatrick. It just feels like they were lying in the weeds waiting for the opportunity to make that move”.

As far as the Steelers sitting around waiting for this potential trade, Adam Schefter suggested there were whispers of Fitzpatrick being available for months. Beat writers such as Mike DeFabo floated the idea out there some time ago, but seemingly from idle speculation. Indeed, he had just broken down plans for the Steelers to deploy him differently right before the trade. Presumably, he wouldn’t have wasted his time doing that if he sensed a trade on the horizon.

Minkah Fitzpatrick is the second major name the Steelers have traded this offseason. In May, they also traded WR George Pickens, a move that had a lot more momentum behind it. In that case, he caused many headaches, to the point that they couldn’t see paying him long-term. “You may have people in the organization that would call that addition by subtraction”, Florio suggested of the departing pair. “It’s all part of moving forward”.

One imagines the Steelers also struggled to see re-signing Fitzpatrick to another lucrative extension. He entered the 2025 season with two years under contract, but by 2026, he would have presumably wanted a new deal. By trading him a year earlier, he may have retained greater value.

But is it possible that the Steelers’ incentive to trade Fitzpatrick went beyond mere performance and salary? Some have suggested, whether with a grain of truth or not, that he may have been one of the culprits involved in their defensive communication issues last year.

There have been other small nuggets here and there. I will note that Fitzpatrick seemed to talk very little last season, a change from previous years. He used to be pretty active talking to the media, serving as a voice for the locker room. Not so in 2025—but to insist that means anything is a stretch without knowing more.

We don’t know if there is much more to know. Is Florio right in suggesting that, over the next couple of weeks, reports surface about Fitzpatrick and the Steelers that indicate the trade meant anything more than a player who wasn’t worth what they were paying and an opportunity to land somebody else?