Steelers' Minkah Fitzpatrick critiques teammates after loss to Patriots: 'Look in the mirror'
Following a 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots on Thursday, All-Pro safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was candid about what's going wrong for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
As the 27-year-old responded to a question about the mindset of the locker room and his feelings after the game, he called out his teammates.
"In order to see the fruit, you've gotta toil for it," he said evenly. "I think too many people don't want to toil for it. They just want to walk out here and think that they're going to make plays and think that they're going to perform at a high level. I think we need to have more people who want to work for it, not expect it to be handed to them."
Fitzpatrick joined the league as a first-round pick out of Alabama in 2018. The veteran is considered a leader of the team, which has now lost two consecutive home games to seemingly less competitive teams in the Arizona Cardinals and Patriots. Both clubs have 3-10 records this season, while the Steelers were 7-4 before this skid.
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin is credited for keeping the team in playoff contention every year since 2007, but Fitzpatrick's comments indicate that he thinks members of the roster are taking the wins for granted.
"This is the NFL. Nothing's handed to you. You got to earn everything," Fitzpatrick said. "I think that dudes just think that because they're wearing the black and gold that they're going to win games, and I think we need to check that mentality and make people realize that they got to earn that mentality and they got to earn every single blade of grass, every single splash play and every single rep that they get out there. They got to earn it."
Another Steelers veteran took a different approach in his postgame media availability,
"You can't give up 21 points like that. I don't care who it is," defensive lineman Cam Heyward said after the loss. "There were mistakes out there all around. Spotting 21 points and having to dig yourself out of that hole is not something you're usually accustomed to in the NFL."
For Fitzpatrick, it's not about pointing fingers. He said he wants the team to take accountability.
"The only thing that people could do is evaluate their work week," Fitzpatrick added. "Look in the mirror, evaluate their work week, evaluate their character, evaluate their love for the game, evaluate why they play the game, and if you're doing it for the wrong reasons or if you're doing it just because you like it and you don't love it and you don't love the ugly part of it, then you need to evaluate what you're doing."
The Steelers were already playing worse than their record suggested, but the team's recent losses present new lows. They trailed by at least 18 points in each of their past two games, marking the first time since 2013 that Pittsburgh has been so far behind in back-to-back matchups.
At first glance, a key issue seems to lie in the locker room. While Tomlin dismissed George Pickens' frustrations on the field as a "non-issue," the wideout proved not to be the only exasperated Steeler.
Weeks later, running back Najee Harris vented about the offense, saying, “There’s a lot of stuff that goes around that you guys don’t see. I’m at a point where I’m just tired of this s***." The team fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada days later.
But the issues clearly didn't stop there. Fitzpatrick reportedly got into heated exchange with teammate Diontae Johnson after a loss to the Cleveland Browns. Shortly after that, Johnson was forced to address his visible lack of effort during a win over the Cincinnati Bengals.
It's unclear what role Tomlin plays in the team's dysfunction, but he seems confident through it all.
"Obviously, this stings, but we'll be back," Tomlin said Thursday night. "This is what we do. This is who we are."
