PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – "I didn't get to play with Troy. I can see from playing with Minkah, it's kind of the same person."
Steelers corner Joe Haden on the growing comparisons between Minkah Fitzpatrick and Troy Polamalu. Not that their careers are at the same level or Fitzpatrick is the same player, but they are beginning to have similar versatility.
"Troy is Hall of Fame," Haden said. "Is there a player you could compare him to, I like Minkah. I heard Troy was not too much of a talker, you don't say too much, you let your ball speak for itself. Always wanting to be the best, Minkah prepares as if he is not even on the team."
Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler coached both, he said when asked if Fitzpatrick had the same flexibility to move around that Polamalu had.
"Not yet," Butler said. "Not yet, but he's a good player for us. We like what he can do. We're gonna move him, we're gonna use his versatility."
"You hear all these guys talk about Troy; Troy did the same thing. He moved around a little bit. Like I said, most quarterbacks read the safeties in terms of dissecting defenses. As much as you can move him around, as much as you can play different positions with him, that's gonna give them problems.
There was a time in the Buffalo game where Fitzpatrick did remind Butler of his Hall of Famer. It was third and three early in the fourth quarter and Matt Breida appeared to be heading for a first down, but Fitzpatrick instinctively came up and made the stop. The next play was the game-changing Cam Sutton TFL on fourth down.
"He read it," Butler said of Fitzpatrick. "He was supposed to be the deep pass and came down and dadgum made a play. Another Troy-like deal."
So why now. Why not have Mincah do this in his first year with the Steelers? We found out Fitzpatrick actually wanted to do more. He did it in college and early in his career in Miami.
"I think Minkah could have done this from the beginning," Haden said. "When you have a free safety that is the best free safety in the world. You know really want to move him from that spot. I like Minkah at the free safety because I feel more comfortable if I get beat over the top."
"He's more comfortable with the defense," Butler said. "He knows what everybody else is doing. When he first got in here, nobody knows all of what we're doing. But we always try to encourage our guys to learn what all 11 guys are doing. If you know what all11 guys are doing, then you know where your help is, and your help isn't."
"I think he's done a good job of learning that over the years that he's been here, the short time he's been here. He's learned what everybody on defense is doing so he's said, 'Hey, I'd like to do that'. One of those deals. We're glad for him to do it and move around as much as we can."
As Butler noted, the goal then is to make it hard on the opposing quarterback. What is Fitzpatrick? What is Cam Sutton? What is Tre Norwood? Haden says he believes all three are either a nickel, safety or corner depending on where they happen to line up on a play.
"It's big for us (having opposing offenses) in film study," Haden said. "When you see people in different spots, you expect them to be there. Then you start switching, start rotating, sending different guys. You don't get a good read on our defensive scheme. Keeping people guessing and preparing for the unknown."
That is what is key for the Steelers on defense. They must communicate with each other so they have an idea where their teammates are going to be. It also shows how veteran they are where players know the scheme and younger players, like Tre Norwood or new players, Joe Schobert, Melvin Ingram are picking it up quickly.
"Those guys, they know what it takes to get a good defense," Butler said. "We just try to put that in front of them and most of the time they want to do it. They enjoy doing it."
"We feel like we've got to play well for us to get a chance to make the playoffs and get to where we wanna go, so we've got to play well on our side of the ball."
