Steelers’ Minkah Fitzpatrick Opens Up About Hit On Nick Chubb

Minkah Fitzpatrick seemingly doesn’t feel any sense of guilt about what happened to Nick Chubb on Monday night.

Chubb sustained a serious knee injury early in the second quarter of the Week 2 Browns-Steelers matchup at Acrisure Stadium. Chubb took a red-zone shotgun handoff and his left leg awkwardly bent after a collision with Fitzpatrick. The star running back was carted off the field and his season is expected to be over.

The Pittsburgh safety expressed sympathy for Chubb on Thursday morning when he met with the media. But as far as the hit is concerned, Fitzpatrick doesn’t believe he did anything wrong.

“I would say, one: They’ve never tackled Nick Chubb before if they’re telling me to go high,” Fitzpatrick told reporters when asked to address his critics, per NFL Network’s James Palmer. “Two: What I seen was it opened up, it’s goal line. I didn’t see anybody on him. I made the decision as soon as I seen the hole open up and him in the hole to go low. You can tell me how to tackle him low but it’s a fast game. It’s a game (where) you make decisions in milliseconds. Can’t really control what happens after you choose to make your decision.

“I already chose to go low. Somebody got on his back when I was going low and what happened, happened. There’s really nothing I would do differently. Again, like I said earlier, it’s very unfortunate. Nick Chubb’s a great player. He makes the game a lot better when he’s playing. Just hope for a speedy recovery.”

Jason McCourty offered a similar breakdown Tuesday when he recapped the incident. The retired defensive back completely understood why Fitzpatrick went low on Chubb and strongly believes the three-time Pro Bowl selection didn’t intend to hurt the Browns star.

With Chubb sidelined, Cleveland is expected to move forward with Jerome Ford as its feature back. The Browns on Wednesday also signed Kareem Hunt, who spent the last four seasons with the organization.