Minkah Fitzpatrick isn’t merely the Dolphins’ most accomplished defensive back and best safety. He’s also, it appears, something of a Swiss Army knife.
Fitzpatrick revealed this week that defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver has decided to use him in multiple roles.
“It’s going to be a little bit more challenging, a little bit more pressure,” Fitzpatrick said. “They’re asking me to do more than just one job. I think his defense in the secondary is based off of versatility, and that’s kind of the reason they brought me here.”
Weaver, at times, uses his safeties in a linebacker-type role.
“A lot of the stuff that he asks the safeties to do isn’t something I haven’t done in the past, whether that’s in the league or college,” he said. “Honestly I feel like the way he runs his defense, it allows me to maximize my versatility.”
Fitzpatrick sometimes participates in drills with the Dolphins’ outside linebackers.
“It’s great for the hand-eye coordination,” he said. “I do a little bit of rushing off the edge and sometimes inside, so I’m just sharpening my toolbox a little bit. I had a couple of reps in Chicago where I was one on one with the back and in Detroit one on one with the tight end. I did pretty well in those situations just using the stuff I do for five minutes every other practice. But yes, sometimes we get caught.”
Last season, Fitzpatrick played a career-high 12.2 snaps per game in the box and eight per game in the slot last season.
In February, the Steelcurtainnetwork’s Kevin Smith had an interesting piece on Fitzpatrick’s usage last season.
Smith said: “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?”
Smith mentioned that in Week 17 against Kansas City, Pittsburgh “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.”
Perhaps a change of scenery will help return Fitzpatrick to the Hall of Fame track he appeared to be on three years ago. He has 20 carries interceptions — including six in 2022 — but just one interception in his past 29 games. But at 29, there’s no reason to think he can’t be a premier player again.
Marshall adjusts
Dolphins rookie Jason Marshall Jr. continues to show growth playing in the slot, a new role for him. He played very little slot at UF.
Marshall handled that role in the preseason game against Detroit and “what stood out the most was that was his first time doing it, and he played it at such a high level,” Fitzpatrick said.
“I think nickel is probably one of the hardest spots to play on the field. You’re asked to do a lot. You have to see a lot. You have to make a lot of communication. You’ve got to tackle, you’ve got to cover. You could be in half one play, you could be blitzing the next play. There’s not many positions on the field that does that.
“He got two tackles for loss. He played great in coverage, made all the right communications. It was really cool to see him step up in that role. It was also cool because in practice, he made a couple of mistakes and corrected it in the game and played lights out. So seeing a guy take the lessons that he learned in practice and apply it in the game and play at a high level is really impressive.”
Defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver said Marshall’s “skill set gives you an opportunity to not only play him outside but inside as well. Then his physicality, again, that we weren’t really sure about until we put him in a game and we saw him make that TFL on the nickel pressure. I was like, ‘OK, it’s in there.’ Now let’s see, we’ll see if he continues to grow there. He’s bigger body corner [at 6-0, 204 pounds]. You know you look at him sometimes you think, ‘Oh man, this guy could be a linebacker, but he has the movement skills of a DB.”
Mike Hilton Jr. is listed on the depth chart as the Dolphins’ first-string nickel corner.
“I think we know what Mike is,” Weaver said. “Mike has played a lot of snaps in this league. I think there’s probably some younger guys we wanted to get out there and make sure we saw at certain positions.”
▪ There have been some growing pains for rookie left guard Jonah Savaiinaea; he has allowed four pressures and a sack in 36 pass blocking snaps.
PFF says he has been Miami’s fourth-best run-blocking lineman during camp.
Offensive coordinator Frank Smith reminded reporters that he was, at one point, “a college right tackle. We move him to left side to play guard, so your whole world essentially goes backwards from the beginning. You can’t be in a rush to get what you want…Just knowing that some days will be good, some days will be not what you want.”