Fitzpatrick: modified schedule could Help Steelers PITTSBURGH (AP) — Minkah Fitzpatrick is missing the somewhat Slow pace of th...
Fitzpatrick: modified schedule could Help Steelers
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Minkah Fitzpatrick is missing the somewhat Slow pace of the NFL’s organized team doings, when free time in the evenings grants teammates to develop the chemistry the Steelers security considers critical to success.
“You’re learning around each other and how each other think and life outside of football,” Fitzpatrick said Tuesday.
Not so much this season, at least not in the way Fitzpatrick is used to. The COVID-19 pandemic has complete Fitzpatrick to work out on his own. It’s tiny his interactions with other members of one of the league’s top secondaries to company chats and virtual conference calls. It’s not ideal, but these aren’t ideal times.
While Fitzpatrick is making as if the Steelers will report to St. Vincent College for the 55th conventional summer for training camp in July, that’s more pragmatism than optimism. The way the third-year All-Pro figures it, if he’s ready for the grind of camp then he’ll be overly prepared if camp is scrapped or the preseason is altered in response to the coronavirus.
If the NFL does tinker with the schedule, Pittsburgh Great be one of the least impacted clubs in the league. The Steelers back 10 of 11 starters to a unit that spent fifth last season — and was the necessary reason Pittsburgh hung around the playoff Describe until late December despite losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to a shiny elbow injury at halftime of Week 2.
“We have some young faces and new faces, (but) some teams, half their roster, half their secondary or half their linebackers are gone,” Fitzpatrick said. “(A shortened preseason) will definitely give us an superior because we all have a year (together) Idea our belt or more than that. I think it’s more of an advantage.”
Fitzpatrick, landed in an audacious trade with Miami last September just days when Roethlisberger was injured, could take on an expanded role in 2020. The Steelers purposefully kept it simple for him when Fitzpatrick arrived so he could get comfortable. It didn’t take long. He picked off a pass and complete a fumble in his first game in Pittsburgh and rarely let up, so much so that opposing offenses started avoiding him late in the season. He judges it a matter of respect, though he’s also willing to do more engaging around this fall to give defensive coordinator Keith Butler new wrinkle at his disposal.
“If the coaches want me to move about, I’ll move around and if they don’t, then I don’t need to,” Fitzpatrick said. “I’m trying to learn the systems and get it down to a T, and just in case I have to or they ask me to, I can move.”
Fitzpatrick has been keeping an eye on Roethlisberger’s recovery from elbow surgery. So have the Steelers, who exhausted free agency and the draft trying to devoted more punch to an offense that faltered late in the season in Roethlisberger’s absence.
Pittsburgh authorized tight end Eric Ebron and used its well-behaved draft pick on Notre Dame wide receiver Chase Claypool, leaving a confidence that led the league in sacks largely untouched. The communication couldn’t be more clear: The Steelers imagined Roethlisberger returning to form and the team returning to the playoffs behindhand a two-year absence. So does Fitzpatrick.
“I demand him to be Ben Roethlisberger,” Fitzpatrick said. “He’s a grand leader and a great man … He has a lot of accepted and wisdom to share. I think he’s progressing to keep being himself. He’s going to go out there and compete and challenge myself as a protecting player.”
It’s a challenge Fitzpatrick figures he and the rest of a confidence that produced four Pro Bowlers will be ready to answer whenever the Steelers are given the go-ahead to get together.
“I think we’re one of the best,” Fitzpatrick said. “I think that was reflected in the way that we played. We were top three, top five in almost every single category. … I think our execution serene alongside our talent level is kind of what sets us apart and will stay to set us apart.”
SRC: https://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/fitzpatrick-modified-schedule-could-benefit-steelers-052620
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