The Pittsburgh Steelers and Miami Dolphins are hopeful their blockbuster offseason trade involving former All-Pros Jalen Ramsey and Minkah Fitzpatrick will make their teams better in 2025. Both organizations have lost their last six postseason games.
But in the days since the deal, NFL insiders have suggested the trade wasn’t just about improving their rosters.
“The Miami Dolphins won’t miss cornerback Jalen Ramsey. They won’t miss him regularly showing up for practice as the rest of the team was in the middle of stretching,” wrote The Sun Sentinel’s Dave Hyde.
“They won’t miss how he constantly undermined defensive coordinator Vic Fangio two years ago and coach Mike McDaniel last season in a manner that spread like a bad odor through the larger team.”
NFL insider Mike Florio implied the Steelers could privately feel the same way about Fitzpatrick.
“Something weird was going on,” Florio said on 93.7 The Fan on July 2, via Steelers Depot’s Matthew Marczi. “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.”
On June 30, Ramsey and Fitzpatrick were involved in a trade together with the Steelers and Dolphins. Pittsburgh agreed to send Fitzpatrick and a 2027 fifth-round pick to the Dolphins for Ramsey, tight end Jonnu Smith and a 2027 seventh-round choice.
The Risk of Steelers Trading for Jalen Ramsey
The Steelers-Dolphins blockbuster left pundits so shocked that some may have initially overlooked the off-the-field ramifications of the deal.
Not only will Ramsey turn 31 in October, but he has now been traded three times in his career. With two of those instances, the cornerback demanded the trade.
While there’s always two sides to a fractured team-player relationship, Ramsey’s involvement in multiple trade demands is not a good sign.
In recent years, the Steelers have largely moved on from players who reportedly cause drama. The team traded both wide receivers Diontae Johnson and George Pickens in the past 15 months. Pittsburgh also immediately fulfilled quarterback Kenny Pickett’s desire for a fresh start elsewhere.
But in Ramsey, the Steelers appear to be rolling the dice with a player who has had drama surround them throughout their career. It, though, might just be for one season.
Although the Steelers immediately gave Ramsey a raise, the team can move on from the veteran cornerback next offseason and incur only a $12.8 million dead cap hit.
Steelers Wanted to Dump Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick?
Florio’s claim that Fitzpatrick was causing issues with the Steelers was essentially pure speculation. But it wasn’t completely out of left field.
After losing to the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day, Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward and safety DeShon Elliott expressed frustration about the defense’s performance. Connecting the dots from the comments of both players after the loss, Heyward and Elliott appeared to insinuate the issues stemmed from one defensive back.
“When 10 guys do their job and one guy doesn’t, we are screwed,” Heyward said to the media, via Steelers insider Mark Kaboly.
“First off, guys can’t be [expletive] wide open. That’s the first thing. Just do your job,” Elliott told reporters, via The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Christopher Carter. “I thought we were communicating, [but] guys weren’t doing their frickin’ job.
Heyward later clarified on his podcast that he was speaking generally and not subtlety aiming at one player such as Fitzpatrick.
Whether or not Fitzpatrick was a main source of Pittsburgh’s defensive decline in December 2024, ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler reported the Steelers may have began shopping the safety early this offseason.
“Fitzpatrick still a top-10 safety, but evaluators around the league have seen some decline, and trade whispers regarding his future first surfaced in March,” tweeted Fowler.
Steelers Nation, though, will have to wait for more concrete evidence or reports to confirm Florio’s claim that Fitzpatrick became a problem in Pittsburgh as Ramsey was in Miami.
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