Miami Dolphins Minkah Fitzpatrick needs to be a team player

The Miami Dolphins have given Minkah Fitzpatrick permission to find himself a trade. The team wants him to be versatile. He wants to play one position.

Minkah Fitzpatrick may be the next Miami Dolphins player who finds himself on another team and while he has all-world talent, maybe this one shouldn’t really surprise anyone or piss them off. The Dolphins are getting rid of players who won’t play the system being installed.

Forget about “fit” when it comes to whatever system the Dolphins are installing the team needs players who want to excel. Want to do more. Apparently, Minkah Fitzpatrick wants to do less.

The narrative surrounding Fitzpatrick right now is that he does not want to be the “Swiss Army Knife” that Miami thought they were drafting. After a year of Matt Burke maybe he just is so confused and wants to simplify his life.

Rumors have stated that Fitzpatrick does not want to play up or on the side, he wants to play safety or maybe slot corner. Not both, not swapping around, not playing six different spots based on what the defensive signal calls for. He wants to play one spot. He needs to get on board or indeed, get out.

If there is one thing that is clear about this year’s Miami Dolphins it is that they want, this new coaching staff, a team of versatility. They want players that can jump from one spot to the next and play that position and then maybe jump back the next play. It is a system that worked well in New England with very few “top talents” on that side of the ball. In fact, the system has made names of the players in New England.

Fitzpatrick may be dealt out of Miami and if he is, then so be it. He is not a draft pick of Brian Flores and while Chris Grier was part of the draft last year with Mike Tannenbaum and Adam Gase, it is unclear who told Stephen Ross that they were drafting Fitzpatrick over Lamar Jackson. There were reports that it was indeed Grier.

Regardless of the who, the situation now shows a similar situation to the drafting and trading of Josh Rosen a year removed. Coaches want something different and we all may see Fitzpatrick as a building block to the defense but if he isn’t willing to change to help the team, is that someone you build around? Probably not.