{"id":226338,"date":"2025-07-22T06:11:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:11:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226338\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T06:11:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:11:10","slug":"darius-slay-reacts-to-steelers-trading-minkah-fitzpatrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/226338\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Slay Reacts To Steelers Trading Minkah Fitzpatrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Pittsburgh Steelers have made several surprising moves this offseason. However, none may have been more shocking than when they sent Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Miami Dolphins in a deal for Jonnu Smith and Jalen Ramsey. There were rumors connecting the Steelers to both those players, but there wasn\u2019t much indicating that they were ready<\/a> to move on from Fitzpatrick. He\u2019s been one of the best safeties in the league since coming to Pittsburgh. New Steelers corner Darius Slay recently shared his reaction to the move.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the trade go through, I\u2019m thinking it was just some draft picks,\u201d Slay said Monday on Richard Sherman\u2019s podcast.<\/a> \u201cI thought it would be me, him, Minkah, all of us back there. I\u2019m like, \u2018This gonna be crazy.\u2019 Then I seen the final results like, \u2018This is a little different.\u2019 I\u2019m looking forward to it. I met Minkah a couple times down there. He\u2019s a smart player. He is what Pittsburgh nation is.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s 10 toes down. He comes to work; he leads by example. He was a great teammate for me for the six days I was there. I was looking forward to seeing that because that would have been my real first time coming in with another All-Pro at that safety position. Now, I\u2019ll replace him with another All-Pro and I feel like one of the best in the game as well, and that\u2019s Jalen Ramsey. It\u2019s gonna be great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slay\u2019s thought process was similar to that of many<\/a> Steelers fans. Most expected Pittsburgh to send draft capital away to acquire Ramsey and Smith. However, they opted to move Fitzpatrick, a three-time first-team All-Pro and five-time Pro Bowler.<\/p>\n

For the first few years of his Steelers tenure, Fitzpatrick was incredible. He made an instant impact, helping solidify the back end of their defense. However, in recent years, he hasn\u2019t been as good. While not all of that has been his fault, the Steelers clearly felt comfortable enough parting with him to add new pieces.<\/p>\n

While Pittsburgh has good corner depth, safety could be a problem with the Fitzpatrick trade creating a hole there.<\/p>\n

At the moment, it\u2019s unclear where Ramsey is going to play in Pittsburgh. Throughout his career, he\u2019s mostly been an outside corner. He\u2019s also seen some time in the slot, so perhaps he\u2019ll fit in there with the Steelers. Slay and Joey Porter Jr. seem less suited to play in the slot or at safety, so perhaps that could leave Ramsey as a chess piece for the Steelers to move around.<\/p>\n

Ramsey also played some safety in college, and while he hasn\u2019t done that in a large sample size in the NFL, perhaps he could shift there for the Steelers. That could allow them to put forth their best combination in the secondary.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unfortunate that Pittsburgh couldn\u2019t keep Fitzpatrick. Slay sums him up perfectly. He\u2019s a hard-working, intelligent player. If he recaptures some of his old magic, he could make the Steelers look foolish for making this deal.<\/p>\n

While the Steelers\u2019 defensive backs won\u2019t include Fitzpatrick, Slay is just as excited to get to work with them. They\u2019ve still got a lot of talent in their secondary. The key now is where everyone fits in.<\/a><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pittsburgh Steelers have made several surprising moves this offseason. However, none may have been more shocking than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[9313,7,1815,7583,6,520,57,2360,426,46740,691],"class_list":{"0":"post-226338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-darius-slay","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-jalen-ramsey","11":"tag-minkah-fitzpatrick","12":"tag-nfl","13":"tag-pittsburgh","14":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","15":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","16":"tag-steelers","17":"tag-the-richard-sherman-podcast","18":"tag-trending"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114895407462206542","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}