{"id":227183,"date":"2025-07-22T13:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/227183\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T13:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:54:14","slug":"darius-slay-reacts-to-steelers-dealing-minkah-fitzpatrick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/227183\/","title":{"rendered":"Darius Slay Reacts to Steelers Dealing Minkah Fitzpatrick"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steelers News<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"SteelersPittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay speaks at a press conference about his contract signing with the Pittsburgh Steelers at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, Thursday, March 13, 2025 in Pittsburgh, PA. (Alysa Rubin \/ Pittsburgh Steelers)\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

It will be difficult to find someone who wasn\u2019t surprised to see the Pittsburgh Steelers trade three-time first-team All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick as part of their blockbuster deal with the Miami Dolphins<\/a>. That includes some of the team\u2019s newest additions, too.<\/p>\n

New Steelers cornerback Darius Slay, who joined the team in March, recently reacted to the trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw the trade go through, I\u2019m thinking it was just some draft picks,\u201d Slay said<\/a> on \u201cThe Richard Sherman Podcast.\u201d \u201cI thought it would be me, [Jalen Ramsey], 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Pittsburgh did create another hole at safety with Fitzpatrick now out of town, and whoever eventually replaces him, has big shoes to fill.<\/p>\n

Despite Fitzpatrick\u2019s lack of turnovers over the past two seasons, he still proved to be one of the best safeties in the league while recording 160 tackles, one forced fumble, one interception and seven passes defensed during the span.<\/p>\n

\"PittsburghPittsburgh Steelers safeties Minkah Fitzpatrick and DeShon Elliott try to tackle Baltimore Ravens running back Derrick Henry on Jan. 11, 2025. \u2014 Ed Thompson \/ Steelers Now<\/p>\n

Slay saw just that in his limited time with Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n

\u201cI met Minkah a couple times down there. He\u2019s a smart player. He is what Pittsburgh nation is,\u201d Slay said. \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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramsey does give the Steelers defense even more flexibility as a three-time first-team All-Pro himself, but that doesn\u2019t make the departure of Fitzpatrick any easier for those who have grown to love him.<\/p>\n

Fitzpatrick has 608 tackles, five forced fumbles, five fumble recoveries, 20 interceptions, 54 passes defensed and four touchdowns in his seven-year NFL career.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMentioned In This Article: Darius Slay<\/a> Jalen Ramsey<\/a> Minkah Fitzpatrick<\/a> Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> Steelers<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Steelers News Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Darius Slay speaks at a press conference about his contract signing with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227184,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[9313,7,1815,7583,6,520,57,2360,426],"class_list":{"0":"post-227183","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"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114897227946867074","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227183","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=227183"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227183\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227183"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227183"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227183"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}