There are a number of takeaways Steelers fans can have from the team’s 8–8 season in 2019. Of course one could choose to focus on the negative, but with everything that is 2020 I don’t know that anyone needs more negativity in their life. Instead, the 2019 season truly brought about the reemergence of the Steelers defense.
It’s not breaking news to anyone, but the final piece to the defense which came in and caused an immediate impact was the acquisition of Minkah Fitzpatrick before the Steelers Week 3 matchup in San Francisco. While some fans were infuriated at the time that the Steelers would give up their first-round pick in the 2020 draft, the All-Pro performance by Fitzpatrick erased those concerns.