Minkah Fitzpatrick has been in the NFL for seven seasons now, and he has spent the last five seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers. Fitzpatrick has had a lot of good seasons in his career. In fact, he has been so good that he recently earned some extremely high praise from a Steelers legend. Troy Polamalu is one of the best to ever wear the black and gold, and he recently appeared on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward and discussed Fitzpatrick.
Troy Polamalu was part of some of the most punishing defenses the NFL has ever seen during his Steelers days. When Polamalu gave his Hall of Fame speech, he noted how Steelers players know that they have earned respect from past legends.
‘The only approval any Steeler should seek is to earn the approval of previous legends who have donned the Black and Gold,” Polamalu said, according to an article Steelers Now. “And if you have truly earned their respect, they’ll say, ‘You could have played with us.’”
It sounds like Minkah Fitzpatrick has now earned that respect from Polamalu. When Polamalu was talking about him on the podcast, he didn't just say that he could've played with them, but he noted that he wish he did play with him.
“It’s somebody like I said that I would’ve loved to play with,” Polamalu said. “But honestly he falls in line with all the great safeties that played with our organization. He’s the 2K version in the sense of you know his mindset is on another level, and I really appreciate that about him.”
Troy Polamalu has comparisons for Minkah Fitzpatrick
Troy Polamalu had a lot of things to say about Minkah Fitzpatrick, and one thing that he did was compare him to past players. Deshea Townsend and William Gay are both NFL coaches now, and Polamalu sees a lot of them in Fitzpatrick.
“If I think about the teammates that he reminds me of, all of them were geniuses,” Polamalu said. “Think about Deshea Townsend, who taught me so much about the game, knew about every position, taught me about the ins and outs of all the positions,” Polamalu said. “Will Gay is somebody who’s very similar like that. But then you have someone like him who is truly special at that next level that thinks the game like that. The game was much more simple when I played, so the fact he’s still outsmarting and doing a lot of really amazing that people that really appreciate the skill set of what safeties bring, I truly admire that about him.”
Troy Polamalu is one of the best Steelers players of all time, and Minkah Fitzpatrick has now earned the ultimate praise from the legend.
Fitzpatrick has had a great NFL career so far, and Steelers fans are excited to continue to watch him play in Pittsburgh. Fitzpatrick has racked up 17 interceptions so far while he was been with the Steelers, and he is hoping to add more of those this season after not having any last year.
The Steelers are going to need their defense to be rock solid if they are going to have a good year this upcoming season. Fitzpatrick will play a big role in making that happen.
