(Photo by Charles LeClaire/USA Today Sports)

Time flies so fast. 

Minkah Fitzpatrick is about to enter his 5th season as a Pittsburgh Steeler, and the star safety is poised for another stellar season in black and gold.

It’s almost hard to believe that the trade that brought Fitzpatrick to Pittsburgh happened just about four years ago, yet here we are.

But while the trade is remembered by most for the biggest assets involved (Fitzpatrick and Pittsburgh’s first round pick) the full trade with the Miami Dolphins had many more moving parts attached. 

Before we look at everybody involved in the move, let’s look back on why Fitzpatrick was traded in the first place. 

Drafted 11th overall by Miami in the 2018 NFL Draft, Fitzpatrick had a rather uncomfortable rookie season. 

Playing multiple different positions, Fitzpatrick never truly had a chance to get settled on the field for the Dolphins. 

Entering his second season in 2019, Miami opened the season with a 59-10 blowout loss to Baltimore Ravens. The following week, Miami lost 43-0 to the New England Patriots. 

After the game against New England, Fitzpatrick requested a trade. 

It would have been understandable for Minkah, or anyone for that matter, to want out after being on the wrong end of back to back embarrassing blowouts (and he was not the only player to request a trade during this period), but it was actually about how he was deployed on the field.

Fitzpatrick felt he was too often being asked to play out of position, which was on display in Week 1 when the coaching staff asked him to play multiple different positions during the game. 

At the same time, Miami was a team in disrepair. Embarking on a quite clear tanking strategy, several Dolphins players had already made it clear to their agents that they wanted out of Miami as soon as possible. 

In the case of many rebuilds, a first round draft pick from the year prior would probably be the last person you would want to trade, but since Fitzpatrick had been one of the few players to request a trade publicly, the Dolphins lost a lot of potential leverage in any deal. 

The Dolphins granted Fitzpatrick’s agent, Joel Segal, to make calls around the league and try and facilitate a trade somewhere. 

To his credit, Fitzpatrick did not allow the trade talks to get in the way of his focus while as a Dolphin, and he did not spend time talking to the media about how he wanted out of Miami. 

The Steelers emerged as a potential candidate for a trade, as a team in need of a star safety to round out their defensive squad. This was around the time the Steelers had transitioned from a team with a high powered offense and terrible defense to completely the other way around. 

Fitzpatrick would be the latest piece added to a top defensive unit that helped the Steelers stay afloat as they spent the 2019 season without Ben Roethlisberger. 

Alas, after negotiations between the two teams, the Steelers and Dolphins agreed to the full trade down below:

To Miami:

Pittsburgh’s 2020 first round pick

Pittsburgh’s 2020 fifth round pick

Pittsburgh’s 2021 sixth round pick

To Pittsburgh:

Minkah Fitzpatrick

Miami’s 2020 fourth round pick

Miami’s 2021 seventh round pick

The trade was massive, especially for Pittsburgh, who had done the nearly unthinkable in trading their first round draft pick, an incredibly rare thing for the Steelers brass to do. 

But what about those other players involved? There were five total draft picks swapped in the deal, including some players on the Steelers who you might not know were used by picks acquired in the deal. 

Let’s start with Miami: 

With Pittsburgh’s first round pick, which in 2020 ended up being 18th overall, the Dolphins drafted offensive lineman Austin Jackson. 

Jackson is still a promising young player for the Dolphins front line, but he had several injury problems last season that hindered him to only two games. 

Prior to that, he started in a solid majority of Miami’s games to help fill in their o-line. 

With that fifth round pick, the Dolphins drafted defensive lineman Jason Strowbridge. He appeared in 8 games for Miami in 2020 before he was waived and eventually cut prior to the 2021 season.

As for that sixth rounder in 2021, Miami traded that pick over to the New York Jets. 

Now over in Pittsburgh, the Steelers got some picks back in the deal too: 

With Miami’s fourth round pick in 2020, the Steelers selected offensive lineman Kevin Dotson. 

Dotson has been a part of an improving offensive line in Pittsburgh ever since his draft day, including starting in all 17 Steelers games last season. 

And with that seventh round pick in 2021, Pittsburgh drafted cornerback Tre Norwood. 

Norwood has been solid in his role on the Steelers defense, and has appeared in 32 games for Pittsburgh over the past two seasons. 

The trade was a massive win for Pittsburgh, just for Fitzpatrick alone. 

The ballhawk has recorded 17 interceptions in 61 games as a Steeler, including several game-sealing picks. He’s established himself as one of, if not the top safety in the NFL. 

But even in the smaller details of the trade, the Steelers did quite well for themselves too. 

It truly was the ultimate steal for Pittsburgh.