Should the Dolphins’ Fitzpatrick be NFL’s defensive rookie of year? Here’s his answer
Straight talk here:
Either Indianapolis’ Darius Leonard or Dallas’ Leighton Vander Esch are going to win the defensive rookie of the year award, short of an enormous upset.
They both check all the boxes:
Great stats (146 tackles and seven tackles for Leonard, 116 tackles and two interceptions for Vander Esch).
Play on good defenses (the Cowboys rank fifth and the Colts rank 10th).
Members of prominent teams (Dallas and Indianapolis are national brands and both might make the playoffs).
Minkah Fitzpatrick, meanwhile, meets only one of those three criteria.
“I don’t know,” Fitzpatrick said of his chances this week, as he prepared to face the Jaguars in Miami’s home finale. “I think I did a very good job. A lot of things don’t fall into my hands. I can only control what I can control. Like I’ve said, I’ve got to keep getting better, keep trying to learn everything and move forward.”
Win or lose, there’s no denying Fitzpatrick is a marvelous player.
He ranks 10th among rookies in tackles (73). He’s tied for sixth in both interceptions (2) and passes defensed (11). And he’s one of just five rookies with a defensive touchdown this season.
But his impact goes far beyond his numbers. Dolphins defensive coordinator Matt Burke said he doesn’t “think people appreciate what he’s done this year.”
Put another way, Fitzpatrick done something no other rookie has — or probably can.
“He’s played four different positions for us and sometimes week-to-week,” Burke said. “That’s not easy. For myself and the coaching staff to have that ability to just come in and say ‘Mink, this week we have to stick you outside at corner. This is where we need the most help,’ or ‘We’re thin at nickel,’ at the start of the year. He doesn’t blink. To be able to perform at the level that he’s been able to perform at, I think it’s probably being a little bit under recognized, what he’s actually been able to do for us.”
Just check the game books.
Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins’ first-round pick out of Alabama, has started three games at safety, three games at nickel and three games as a boundary corner.
Basically, wherever the Dolphins have a player hurt in the secondary, Fitzpatrick fills in.
So it stands to reason that he will start at safety Sunday with T.J. McDonald likely out with an ankle injury.
That flexibility is hugely valuable.
Still, the Dolphins surely want him to pick a position and master it going into Year 2.
But where?
It depends on where the player and his coaches believe he is best suited. And that’s still unsettled, at least publicly.
“I don’t know,” Fitzpatrick answered this week. “Wherever I’m at, wherever I’m called to be, that’s what I’m best at.”
Burke’s take?
“It’s hard to say. … We’re battling week-to-week and living game-to-game. We come in on Monday and say ‘This is what we have to do this week to win a ball game.’ Some of that big-picture stuff and stepping back and saying ‘What are we going to do with him moving forward?’ is something that we’re going to look at after the season probably.”
Burke continued: “For myself, [I am] appreciative of, I guess if you want to call it sacrifices, that he’s made to bounce around so much and have to keep learning new spots. Never bats an eye and just says ‘I’ve got you coach’ and ‘Let’s go do it.’ So I think that deserves some recognition.”
Here’s what the Dolphins will probably determine this offseason:
Fitzpatrick can play on the boundary in a pinch, but it’s not his strength.
In the two games he filled in for Xavien Howard, out Weeks 14 and 15 with a knee injury, Fitzpatrick had some issues in coverage.
Pro Football Focus broke down his season snaps, and the numbers backed up what our eyes saw.
On the season, Fitzpatrick has 165 coverage snaps on the boundary, allowing 13 of 23 passes in his area to be completed for 173 yards and a 80.5 passer rating. Those are solid numbers, for sure.
But nothing compared to his stats nickel corner. Those are elite.
In 207 coverage snaps at that position, Fitzpatrick has been targeted 40 times, allowing just 18 receptions for 175 yards. Both of his interceptions came out of the slot, and his season passer rating against is an incredible 37.0 passer rating against.
That creates the same issue the Dolphins faced in 2018:
They have two highly paid safeties (McDonald and Reshad Jones). Howard is a Pro Bowler at corner. Bobby McCain is among the league’s highest-paid nickel corners. And as we said, Fitzpatrick is the weakest on the boundary.
So there doesn’t seem to be an obvious spot for Fitzpatrick, should the entire group return in 2019.
“When you play one position in the back end, you don’t really know what everyone else is doing around you,” Fitzpatrick said. ‘But when you move around – so when I play nickel, since I’ve played corner and I’ve played safety, I know exactly what they’re doing behind me. I can kind of do certain things and move certain ways to play faster and react, and do my best.”
