Steelers Trade Minkah Fitzpatrick, Late Pick to Dolphins for Jalen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith - Fantasy Football Winners and Losers

When your quarterback is a 41-year-old Aaron Rodgers, you are squarely in “win now” mode. And the Pittsburgh Steelers are making “win now” trades. The 30-year-old Jalen Ramsey and soon-to-be 30-year-old Jonnu Smith wanted new deals with the Miami Dolphins, but that wasn’t in the cards for the direction the franchise is moving in. So they shipped them off to the Pittsburgh Steelers. Minkah Fitzpatrick re-joins the team that originally drafted him, and they also add a 2027 5th-round pick, per Tom Pelissero and Ian Rappaport. 

That move not only has real-life implications, but it also shakes up the tight end landscape for fantasy football. Let’s take a look at the fallout of the move and who the winners and losers are for fantasy football. 
 

Pittsburgh Steelers Trade Fantasy Football Winners and Losers

Arthur Smith loves his tight ends. They previously had a room of Pat Freiermuth, Darnell Washington, Connor Heyward, Donald Parham, and rookie JJ Galbreath. Pat Freiermuth was set to be the pass-catching tight end with Connor Heyward behind him, while Darnell Washington was the blocking tight end with Donald Parham behind him. However, Parham suffered an injury this offseason that they expect will keep him out for all of 2025.

The scary thing for fantasy football is that both Jonnu Smith and Pat Freiermuth could be used interchangeably by Arthur Smith. Here’s a breakdown of how they were deployed in terms of the percentage of their routes run last year per Pro Football Focus. Jonnu Smith played a similar number of WR snaps under Smith with the Falcons.

Obviously, adding weapons helps Aaron Rodgers. The move likely doesn’t have much of an impact on DK Metcalf and his role as the split end. The upsides, guys like Calvin Austin and Roman Wilson are definitely hurt as adding another tight end that lines up WR not only hurts snaps but targets. Having more tight ends playing in WR roles also makes running backs Kaleb Johnson and Jaylen Warren sneaky winners here with the blocking improvement. 

Miami Dolphins Trade Fantasy Football Winners and Losers

Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa is a loser here for fantasy, no matter how you slice it. Jonnu Smith was one of his most reliable targets last year, and they didn’t get any weapons coming back in the deal. Barring some sort of miracle trade for a high-end tight end, this hurts Tua. 

Losing a guy who got 111 targets last year is good news for virtually everyone else, though, for fantasy. More targets could be available for Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle. And obviously, someone is going to get more snaps in that tight end room. The veteran Pharoah Brown would be the more boring option for fantasy. Blocking is crucial to the scheme, which could give a leg up to Julian Hill. Tanner Conner is built like more of a “big slot” tight end than an inline guy. And rookie Jalin Conyers probably becomes the best “mystery box” option, especially in dynasty.

You might think losing a good blocking tight end would hurt De’Von Achane, but this actually could be a big boost to his value. Achane quietly ran a historical number of routes from a WR spot for a running back last season. Jonnu was running ~70% of his routes from a WR spot, with a lot of those coming from the slot, so that’s potentially less competition for those routes and targets for Achane. He’s a sneaky winner here.