Minkah Fitzpatrick hoping, planning for ‘normal’ Steelers training camp, preseason
Think that as one of the NFL’s best defensive players that Minkah Fitzpatrick is privy to any inside info regarding what the upcoming season might look like? Think again.
“I have no clue,” the Pittsburgh Steelers defensive back said during a video conference call with media Tuesday.
Furthermore, if the Steelers coaches and management happen to know anything about the plans for a 2020 season that will be affected by the coronavirus pandemic, they aren’t divulging them to the players.
“They’re updating us at the end of the day with what they have,” Fitzpatrick said, “and what they have is very little.
“We’re just taking it day to day and preparing as if it’s going to be a normal preseason and normal camp schedule.”
At this point, that’s all Fitzpatrick and his teammates — and players across the league — can do. Fitzpatrick was speaking from home in the midst of a day in which the Steelers opened up their organized team activities sessions. These are the (padless) on-field offseason workouts that most closely resemble football practices — but in 2020, they are not much more than video conference calls with coaches and teammates.
OTA’s are to run for three weeks, with a three-day mandatory minicamp to follow. Then, a five-week “break” leading into what is supposed to be reporting day for training camp. For the Steelers, that day in all likelihood would have been July 22 at Saint Vincent College.
No one knows for sure if that date or that venue will stick. The way Fitzpatrick sees it, in a take off of the old adage “prepare for the worst, hope for the best,” he is preparing and hoping for the “best” — that camp begins on time and the preseason retains its original format.
“I think teams started to take less shots downfield or less shots where I was." -- Minkah Fitzpatrickhttps://t.co/0TZwTjXkeL
— Joe Rutter (@tribjoerutter) May 26, 2020
“I’m preparing as if we’re going to go back and going to go right into the full swing of things,” Fitzpatrick said, “that we’re going to go back into a regular camp schedule and a regular preseason schedule. Because honestly, that’s the toughest (on players’ bodies) that (it could) be — if we do do that — so I’m going to prepare for that.
“If we have anything else, if they cut the preseason in half or if they push it back a couple weeks, I’ll be prepared. But I’m preparing as if we’ll have a normal regular season.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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