As Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick enters the fifth-year option of his rookie contract, the 25-year-old is looking for an extension from the team that acquired him via trade three years ago. According to The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly, Fitzpatrick is a likely candidate to perform a “hold-in” if he doesn’t have a new contract by training camp.
As opposed to the traditional contract hold-out, a “hold-in” would see Fitzpatrick attend training camp while not participating in any serious manner. Due to rules in the new CBA, a player has to be fined $50,000 per day for skipping training camp. Fitzpatrick’s teammate, defensive end T.J. Watt, performed the same inactive action last year.
Here are a few other rumors from the Steel City:
- Defensive lineman Stephon Tuitt‘s retirement this past week has some effect on the Steelers’ cap spending in the next few years, according to a separate article from Kaboly. As a post-June 1 designation, the Steelers will save just over $9MM against the cap this year. Because they put voidable years into Tuitt’s contract last year to spread out his cap hit, though, they will still accrue dead money of $4.9MM this year and $4.8MM next season. They do have the option to recoup a portion of Tuitt’s signing bonus from the contract’s initiation, but Pittsburgh has never pursued this course of action with any other players who took early retirements, so it’s unlikely they will do so with the grieving Tuitt.
- One of the places Pittsburgh will look to replace Tuitt is internally. According to a third Kaboly-article, the Steelers have some hope that last year’s fifth-round draft pick out of Wisconsin, Isaiahh Loudermilk, will be able to replace some of the retired defensive lineman’s production. Other internal options are Tyson Alualu, Chris Wormley, and 2022 third-round pick DeMarvin Leal. Alualu is coming off a broken ankle, Wormley struggles against the run, and Leal is unproven and a tad undersized. Loudermilk saw plenty of action last year and proved himself as a sure run-defender, while struggling to create any pass-rush. Since the Steelers have pass-rushers aplenty in Watt, Alex Highsmith, and Cameron Heyward, being a stout run-defender might make Loudermilk the perfect option to take Tuitt’s snaps.
Still a few good D-linemen out there (and O-linemen). Not sure looking internally for this coming season is going to be enough
I’m not sure either, although both Loudermilk and Montravious Adams exceeded all expectations last season. But Alualu is 35 and coming off an injury, Wormley has about 1.5 good games a season and is shoved around the rest of the time, and the rest besides Heyward are all question marks.
I think Sheldon Richardson would be a great add because he’s still good against the run if you don’t overuse him, and he’s played in 3-4, 4-3 and everything else extensively. Eddie Goldman would be interesting too. They also tried out a few defensive ends the other day, one of whom was Ifeanyi Odenigbo: he was very good as a Viking but disappointed as a Brown last season. I don’t think they have to make a DL addition per se, but I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Dare I say Suh??