“Your defense has been getting WORSE for years”: Colin Cowherd ridicules the Pittsburgh Steelers for making Minkah Fitzpatrick the highest-paid Safety
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How to get rich quickly in the NFL? Make two all-pro selections and pro-bowl appearances. Minkah Fitzpatrick, the Safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers has agreed on a four-year contract extension that is worth more than $73.6 million with a guaranteed $36 million making him the highest-paid safety in the league. He beats Jamal Adams’s record contract of $17.5 million per season. It was a well-deserved payday as he has been a key part of the team’s defense since his arrival in 2019.
So far, he has recorded 13 INTs with 3 returned for TDs, 36 passes defended, and four forced fumbles. He is an elite defender and only one of three safeties who has earned multiple first-team All-Pro selections in the last three seasons and stands as the highest-graded in run defense since 2019. Though the whole NFL hailed the safety securing the bag, Colin Cowherd believes it was a mistake to pay him that much money.
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“A position that doesn’t or shouldn’t be paid a lot”: Colin Cowherd feels the Steelers overpaid for Minkah Fitzpatrick
The Fox analyst elaborates on his observation of how the Steelers have become a mediocre team and are content with the direction they are heading in, it was Super Bowl or bust and now it is all about just having a winning season for them. “He’s a very good player but Pittsburgh is getting into a very interesting place, they have a great history but none of it in the last 12 years. Their biggest rivals in the AFC all have better quarterbacks now than they do. They have a defensive coach in an offensive league. After the Minkah Fitzpatrick signing, the Steelers have the most expensive defense in the NFL and the least money in the NFL invested in the offense. That ain’t great in 2022. The standard in Pittsburgh used to be about winning Super Bowls, you know what they brag about now? Mike Tomlin has never had a losing season,” Colin points out the interesting transition over the years,
The Steelers have always been proud of their defensive squads, even when Big Ben took the team to the Super Bowl, their defense had a large part to play in that season leading them to the promised land. But that was nearly a decade ago and now the league has evolved into something different. You cannot just have a solid defensive core and succeed. The league today requires you to have a well-balanced overall team. It is a huge fall from grace bragging about making the finals to just surviving a season without recording a loss.
Colin feels that only one player on that defensive squad deserves to get paid, “I am all for giving T.J. Watt as much as he wants because he is INSANE. There are a handful of defensive players like Aaron Donald, show him the bag but a star safety? I’d scale back on the big raises for the defensive guys not named T.J. Watt.” The analyst believes that the Steelers are looking a lot like Seattle as they do not have a solid quarterback, we do not know how Kenny Pickett will perform, and the team has been spending a lot on its defense but the proof is in the pudding, their performance is on a steady decline. “What’s the standard? Steelers don’t go to the Super Bowl and lose,” Colin concludes pointing out how the team’s fanbase believed every season it was Super Bowl or bust but now it is the opposite.
The team is taking it one win at a time and partying after they win regular-season games as well.
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Sumedh Joshi
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