Mark Madden's Hot Take: Justin Herbert would be more valuable to Steelers than Minkah Fitzpatrick

Minkah Fitzpatrick might be the NFL’s best safety. He’s made first-team All-Pro in three of the last four seasons, including last year when his six interceptions topped the NFL.

But if the Steelers hadn’t traded for him in 2019, they might be a better team.

The Steelers might have Justin Herbert.

The Steelers started the 2019 season 0-3, losing quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the season with an elbow injury suffered during a 28-26 home loss to Seattle in Week 2. After that game, the Steelers traded their first-round pick in 2020 to Miami for Fitzpatrick.

It was an ill-advised attempt to save a season that could never be saved enough.

The Steelers got to 8-5 but lost their last three games to drop out of a playoff berth. But had they qualified for the postseason, they weren’t going to win with Mason Rudolph or Duck Hodges at quarterback.

Had the Steelers tanked, they might have been able to draft Herbert. (No guarantee, obviously.) He went sixth overall to the Los Angeles Chargers, who finished 5-11.

The Steelers would be immeasurably better off with Herbert instead of Fitzpatrick. Herbert is an elite quarterback. That’s what’s required to win in today’s NFL.

The most likely way to get an elite quarterback is to have a terrible season. But the Steelers are wholly unwilling to do that.

That’s the Steelers. They always think about right now, even if right now hasn’t paid off lately. They are locked in the clutches of finish middle, draft middle, stay middle. No losing seasons in the last six but no playoff wins, either. That’s irrefutable evidence.

There’s no glory in scratching and clawing. There’s just meaningless, manufactured accomplishment like your coach never having a losing season.

Fitzpatrick is a great player. But he has yet to win a playoff game. (Neither has Herbert. But he and the Chargers seem a lot closer.)

Who would you rather have: Fitzpatrick and Kenny Pickett, or Herbert and whoever the Steelers would have drafted in last year’s first round instead of Pickett? There’s only one right answer.