-
Marcel Louis-Jacques
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — Minkah Fitzpatrick feels like he stepped into a time machine.
The Miami Dolphins traded for the three-time All-Pro safety this summer, bringing Fitzpatrick back to the team that drafted him in 2018 before sending him to the Pittsburgh Steelers one year later.
During training camp, he described the nostalgic feeling of returning to Hard Rock Stadium and South Florida in general; but the move back to Miami is important to Fitzpatrick beyond the football field, as well.
His family lives in nearby Palm Beach County, having moved from New Jersey shortly after he was drafted. As he adjusts to his return to the Dolphins, Fitzpatrick finds comfort not only in being reunited with his tight-knit family but also in being present for the final season of high school football for his brother, Justice.
While Minkah blossomed into one of the NFL’s best defensive players during his time in Pittsburgh, the distance strained his relationship with his family who remained in Florida.
“It was tough. We missed a lot of events,” he said. “We missed a lot of birthdays and stuff, but they came up a good amount even during the season. … It wasn’t always everybody, but they were just trying to get somebody up there at least once a month. We would always try and spend one of the holidays together, whether that be Thanksgiving or Christmas. And then I’m down here during the offseason, so I got to see them for half the year.
“You miss a lot of events, but it’s an unfortunate part of business.”
When the host Dolphins face the New York Jets on “Monday Night Football” (7:15 PM and ESPN), his family will be in attendance to watch him. And the next time Justice next takes the field for St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Minkah will return the favor. It’s a luxury he’s been waiting years for, and one he’s hoping will make his second act in Miami happier than his first, when he requested a trade one game into his second season.
“I think the best part of being a brother is watching your siblings develop,” he said. “Being a big brother, whether it be my sisters or my brother … just watching him go from a little 5-foot bucktoothed kid to 6-2½, 190 [pounds] running 10.5 [seconds in the 100-meter dash]. It’s awesome watching that and then also just being able to teach him everything that I know.”
DOLPHINS GENERAL MANAGER Chris Grier never expected to get Fitzpatrick on his team — not in 2018 and definitely not again in 2025.
During the 2018 draft, Miami flirted with the idea of trading up for a quarterback, after starter Ryan Tannehill tore his ACL in consecutive seasons. But when the prospect of drafting the 2017 Chuck Bednarik and Jim Thorpe awards winner became realistic with the 11th overall pick, Grier jumped on it.
“I didn’t expect Minkah to be there, to be honest with you,” Grier said at the time. “For me, he was probably — however you put it — one of the top five or six players in this draft. As we got calls after the pick, other teams kept calling us telling us, ‘He was in our top five players in the draft.’ For us, the value at that point was surprising that he was there.”
Playing safety, Fitzpatrick started 11 games as a rookie and finished the season with two interceptions. But the Dolphins fired coach Adam Gase after the season, and new coach Brian Flores changed Fitzpatrick to a more fluid role — one for which Fitzpatrick said he was ill-suited.
In Miami’s season-opening 59-10 loss to the Baltimore Ravens in 2018, he logged snaps at edge rusher, both linebacker positions, all three cornerback positions and safety. Unhappy with the constant change of position, Fitzpatrick was granted permission to seek a trade shortly after, and he was traded to the Steelers for a first-round pick.
In his six seasons in Pittsburgh, Fitzpatrick was named a first-team All-Pro three times and made five Pro Bowls. But his time with the Steelers suddenly ended this June, when he was traded back to the Dolphins for cornerback Jale’s ramsey and tight end Jonnu Smith.
Of the deal, Grier said he wasn’t surprised by the Steelers’ interest in both players, especially considering the Miami GM had publicly announced his willingness to trade Ramsey months prior. But he was surprised they sent Fitzpatrick back in return.
“Honestly, I was shocked,” Grier said in August. “I was very surprised we were able to get him. … I think the way you look at it is they got two players that they liked and we got a player that we had coveted too as well, so it was a win-win.
“Getting Minkah back was a big piece for us. I’ve known Minkah — obviously I drafted him, I know what kind of person he was, what kind of leader and how he loves ball. … It was important for this team and these people and the young players we have to know that this is the standard of what we’re going to be and how we’re going to run here.”
Fitzpatrick returned to myriad changes from the South Florida he had left for Pittsburgh. Grier remained, but the Dolphins had a new head coach in Mike McDaniel, and a new practice facility they moved into two years after he left.
Even Hard Rock Stadium had a renovated home locker room and had added a Formula 1 racetrack around it.
But there was another, bigger, constant to his Miami homecoming — his family. Particularly Justice, who was 10 years old when Minkah was traded in 2019 but who now is the No. 42-ranked player in the 2026 ESPN 300 and is headed to play cornerback at Georgia.
“Honestly, I’m really excited about being able to watch him play,” Minkah said. “For the last however many years, I haven’t been able to see him play in person. I had to wait ’til it was online or watch him play 7-on-7, so the fact that I get to show up for him on Friday nights and be able to see him in person is definitely exciting.”
IN 2011, WHEN Minkah was 14 years old, his family’s home in New Jersey was destroyed by Hurricane Irene. Without flood insurance, they rebuilt their home themselves over the next year while living in a family member’s basement.
The experience built character, Minkah said, and instilled in him the value of learning from every hardship, in life and in football.
“I think we were faithful with very little. And because we’re faithful with little, we’ve been entrusted with a lot of responsibility,” he said. “Not just money, but responsibility.”
Part of the responsibility he feels is toward providing an example and role model for Justice, who is 11 years younger and who was a toddler when Irene hit.
Justice had always looked up to his big brother and said he could still appreciate the work Minkah put in considering their circumstance — especially as Minkah developed into a five-star recruit in the years after, his level of dedication stuck with his adolescent brother.
Fitzpatrick signed with Alabama in 2015, where his three-year career included two national championships, two All-American selections, and two awards in 2017 recognizing him as the nation’s best defensive player and its best defensive back.
Justice and Minkah train together with their father every offseason. The workouts have grown to the point where other NFL players join in, but Minkah always pairs up with his brother — their natural competition with each other, helping Justice improve despite not having been as physically developed for most of their workouts over the years.
“I used to whup up on him as much as I could,” Minkah laughed. “That’s just part of being an older brother — you got to let him know life ain’t easy, life ain’t fair. … Now it’s like I’m actually competing against him because he’s taller than me. He’s fast, he can move. Got great hands, great feet. So now it’s actually we’re pushing each other because now he’s more of a young man rather than just a boy.
“He’s getting a couple licks back.”
Growing up as Minkah Fitzpatrick’s brother wasn’t easy. Despite their workouts together, Justice had no intention of playing defensive back like Minkah. Instead, he entered high school as a wide receiver, in part to avoid the comparisons to his older brother.
“When I was in middle school, one of the reasons why I didn’t even want to play defensive back was because of some of the pressure that would come with it,” Justice said. “Once I got to high school, I was a straight receiver. Even in my eighth grade year, I got my first offer at receiver and so I was thinking, ‘I’m gonna stick to this. I don’t even have to worry about playing DB.’ And I kind of felt clear of my brother’s name.”
Justice began playing defensive back as a freshman after a tongue-in-cheek offer to his coaches to play both sides of the ball. He didn’t mean it, but the coaches took him up on it and his defensive career stuck. He earned MaxPreps Junior All-American honors last season and fielded more than 40 scholarship offers before committing to Georgia, where he’ll play for Minkah’s former defensive coordinator at Alabama, Kirby Smart.
Minkah knows he played a hand in the early attention Justice received but is proud of his brother for making his own name.
“I’ve had success in the NFL, so it travels no matter where he goes. But he’s done a great job of carving out his own path, allowing his play to speak for itself,” he said. “At first a lot of people were saying, ‘Oh, you only getting this recognition because of your brother.’ And he would go out there and ball out, and they’d be like, ‘Ah, nah, he’s nice.’
“Obviously he’s going to learn from me, but he’s going to be himself.”
WHEN THE DOLPHINS face the Jets on Monday, the entire Fitzpatrick family will watch from a private booth. Justice joked that they’re still getting used to the prime seat location and its amenities — they’d be happy watching the game from the stands, he said.
But Minkah is happy to be close to his family — and his younger brother — again. Although both have suffered early-season adversity — Minkah’s Dolphins started the season 0-3, and Justice has missed the first five games of his season with an injury — seeing his family present is a visceral reminder to Minkah of how special it is to be home.
“That’s the reason why I work so hard. It’s not for me, but for my people,” he said. “They’re the reason why I try to network and tap into as many resources as I can. And everything that I know I’m passing on to him, so he can start 10 steps ahead of where I was.”
