Minkah Fitzpatrick

There's a lot of guys that can claim that they were a Pro Bowler or an All-Pro or whatnot, but there's not a lot of guys that can say I did it every single year of my career or almost every single year of my career.

You don't want a rookie guy out there you can't trust.

You never really think, like, you're gonna lose everything, you know what I'm saying? You might lose a person in your life. You might lose certain things. But what about when you lose everything, every aspect - your house, your car, your clothes?

I just don't like clutter. I like seeing the clear image of things.

I don't want to be somewhere and not getting anything done.

I don't mind being around a whole bunch of people, but when there's a whole bunch of nonsense going on around me, I need to see a sense of purpose around something.

I just think if you're going to do something, you should be great.

I can get loud.

Me and Coach Saban are almost identical. I guess you can say we think alike.

That's what makes great players great and elite players elite is the people that master the fundamentals of this game, and I stray away from it.

The only way that teams really beat themselves in the league is if they don't execute.

I've got opportunities to sit in the actual coaches meeting before with coach Saban as he's breaking down film and going through stuff as I was learning a new position, so I got to see the way that he broke the game down and the way that he thought about the game. I've also had the same opportunity with coach Tomlin.

There's the good, the great and the elite, and I'm trying to put myself in the elite category.

Playing slot in the nickel is definitely the hardest position. It challenges you mentally and physically. You're kind of on an island. You gotta know where your help is and what everybody around you is doing. You're often covering the fastest and quickest guy.

The way that I want to define my NFL career is by being a consistently successful guy.

As long as I'm out there playing with my teammates and playing with my brothers, I'm going to be happy.

Every single year I want to get better and better.

Every single year I want to just top what I did the past year.

It's the terminology that's the hard part to learn. But if you tell me to go cover the curl flat, I can cover the curl flat. But when it's green 72 right, that's a little bit different.

Football's football at the end of the day.

Pittsburgh is a historic program. Been known for a great defense.

I played on a big stage in college.

Anybody is protective over their mother, but she's very protective over myself.

After being drafted in the first round, it's not common that you get traded the following year. I had to make decisions and lock in and really try to turn things around.

Who's out there on the other side, it don't matter to me. We just got to do our job.

The path in front is the most important path. Anything that tries to pull you off that path is not necessary.

I think if you want to be active in the community, it's really important to understand where people come from.

I just love being against some of the best guys in the slot, some of the fastest, quickest guys in the slot. And you get to do multiple things: you get to play the run, get to cover, play the rush.

When you slow things down and learn the defense and get comfortable, you'd honestly play faster instead of flying all over the place.

When you're playing fast, you speed things up, you think so much, you start tripping over your feet.

I like to play fast, but some of the coaches are telling me that playing fast isn't always the best thing, especially when they move me around a lot. It's more being able to process everything, relax and rely on your instincts.

It's hard to reach out to somebody if you don't know who they are, what they are, the way they are. I just think it's important to get out into the community and get an understanding what people are about.

I just want to make sure I'm focused on the right things, doing my assignment, make sure I'm communicating, playing fast, playing physical and just playing my game.

I like a lot of schools for different reasons.

It's hard to pick one, but I would say the game when I really realized I was in the NFL was my rookie year when we played the Colts. I was playing corner that game, it was one of my first games playing corner, and I was covering TY Hilton.

Going into a game and not knowing where you're going to play at until the day of the game is not easy.

I would say making memories with my teammates and my brothers and all of the relationships that I formed through football. It's a great network, you get to meet a lot of great people, you get to experience a lot of hardships with other people, and fight through things with other people.

Yeah, I think I'm one of the best at what I do. So obviously, you would like to be paid in that way and represented in that way.

It's exciting for any professional athlete going through something to just stay true to who you are, keep your head down, keep working and, at the end of the day, you're going to get what you deserve.

If people are struggling with certain things, I want to be that person they can look up to and say he got through something in his life, and so can I.

When I sit in darkness, the Lord will be a light to me. There's been times in my life when I had to do that. It speaks to me and applies to me.

If the other team doesn't score and you score two or three touchdowns and a couple field goals, you're going to win the game.

Big plays come when they come.

Our faith in Christ kept us all rooted in the right things, kept our minds and our hearts in the right place.

I kind of had to grow quick just because of some things I've been through at a young age and it kind of helped me realize what I was chasing after.

My dream wasn't to just make it to the NFL, it's to be a great player in the NFL. It's just the beginning.

I don't think being a perfectionist on the football field is a bad thing.

I feel like I learn from my mistakes. I don't dwell on them.

People hold me to a high standard because I hold myself to a high standard.

I think it's important to get your hands used to securing the ball.