All right, then ... anyone still wondering what's happening with the football team this season? And Mike Tomlin's approach? And why Aaron Rodgers was acquired in the first place?

All-in. All the way. And probably not done.

My goodness.

Yeah. That really happened, that the Steelers just traded Minkah Fitzpatrick to the Dolphins for Jaylen Ramsey and Jonnu Smith. Three Pro Bowl players in the same transaction. Seismic stuff. Unlike any move, really, in franchise history.

And from this perspective, one that points powerfully to one prominent factor:

JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY

Mike Tomlin at the Steelers' minicamp this month.

Mike Tomlin wants this. All of it. And now.

Of everything he's spoken since the 299 debacle in Baltimore, of all the pledges and promises to change this or that, nothing's stuck with me quite like this quote from an April 26 appearance on NFL Network upon being asked when he became convinced the Steelers needed to become bigger and physical: “I doubt that I had even gotten in the shower yet."

Set aside the context. Consider the sentiment. Consider the emotion.

Consider the clear frustration.

I'd been convinced that this'd be his fuel throughout the offseason, for better or worse. That he'd prioritize the now more than ever, which is saying something. That he'd push for ... not just the first playoff victory in forever, but further. 

Then came Rodgers. And now this.

What makes this all-in?

Almost doesn't matter, really. At least not from the result. It's that Tomlin's willing -- or even eager -- to stray outside his previous self to get behind a move like this. And make no mistake: He's behind it. However one chooses to characterize the Steelers' hierarchy, he's no lower than Omar Khan, and he's most likely higher. Tomlin's going to get what he wants, or he'll at least be legitimately in line with what Khan wants.

Put it this way: Tomlin trading Minkah would've been unthinkable just a few months ago. Whereas now, while it's still jarring, it's not to the same degree.

• My reflexive reaction upon learning of the trade was to revisit a thought I'd had and shared a few months ago: If the Steelers weren't going to utilize Minkah to maximum effect -- and they sure weren't by sticking him not just in center field but way out on the warning track -- then they might as well send him to a team that would. He'd be a $15.5 million cap hit this coming season, $17.6 million the next ... and for what? To serve as a scarecrow out there?

• In turn, as I see it, when comparing the combined Ramsey/Smith effect to the player sent out, it'll be fairest to do so to the version of the player the way the Steelers were using him. Because I never got any sense this summer that this was about to change. Not significantly, anyway.

• Within that frame, I'm in favor of the trade. One All-Pro was traded for another, plus a Pro Bowl selection. An All-Pro who wasn't his best self the past two seasons, regardless of fault, was traded for players who can make a big dent on both sides of the ball. In fact, I'm not sure what there wouldn't be to like about such a scenario.

• Minkah's 28, Ramsey's 30, and Smith turns 30 in August. Mostly irrelevant, I'd say, seeing that the only one of the three who's been viewed as in decline in recent years is Minkah. But we'll see.

• Ramsey needs no endorsement from me, to paraphrase one of Tomlin's pet lines. He's as known a commodity as anyone in any secondary anywhere over the past decade. Three All-Pro and seven Pro Bowl selections should suffice for a recitation of his resume. And in his two seasons with Miami, he had five interceptions, 16 passes defensed, a sack, six tackles for a loss (yeah, corners are still allowed to do that in the league), and 82 overall tackles. He's always been special and, even with a semi-down 2024 with just two picks, he still can be:

• What happens now at corner? Or safety?

No one wants to hear this, but that's not going to be seen/heard until Tomlin or Khan discuss it or show it in Latrobe. It can't be. 

Ramsey's done slot corner, and he's done it, unsurprisingly, really well. That'd bump Beanie Bishop while affording the Steelers the luxury of an elite alternative on the outside should anything happen to Joey Porter or Darius Slay. This seems like the top option.

It's also possible, I suppose, that Ramsey could recalibrate his career at safety, as other older All-Pro corners have done. Think Rod Woodson here. But to add a player of this stature, then ask him to try something new immediately ... eh, I'm not feeling that.

Juan Thornhill was acquired as a center field-type corner, anyway. If he can handle that and DeShon Elliott does his thing closer to the line, the safety doesn't necessarily need help. Especially not if all these corners perform as expected.

• I'm on record as having supported an aggressive acquisition at tight end, even if that player would be replacing Donald Parham, a TE3 type who was lost for the season to an Achilles injury in OTAs. That's because Arthur Smith had planned to target Parham more than Darnell Washington, I'm told, so those targets needed to be replaced. And if Jonnu Smith, a player Arthur Smith's trusted -- and employed -- forever, was going to be available and there's still cap space, why not think big?

• Jonnu's legit, even within a mid Miami offense:

Don't pass up that video. It's something.

No, he's not Darnell Washington as a blocker, but he ranked fourth among all NFL tight ends with a career-high 88 catches for a career-high 884 yards and a career-high-tying eight touchdowns. And he'll turn 30 in camp, so it's not like he's about to plunge off some precipice.

• There'll be rightful skepticism that Arthur Smith will get those numbers out of him, if only because he didn't in Nashville and he didn't in Atlanta, never topping 50 catches. But I'd counter that this might offer a smart avenue for splitting the tight-end targets between Jonnu and Pat Freiermuth, rather than declaring a TE1 and TE2 to no real benefit.

• Too many tight ends? Who cares? Win the jobs. It's not as if this offense did enough of anything in 2024, regardless of the tight end being discussed.

• Yes, of course a WR2's still needed. The point all along has been that DK Metcalf needs depth behind him for his specific role.

• No chance Minkah had any idea. Not that he'd have shared if he did, but he and I had a good talk about a month ago, and it couldn't have been clearer his head was 100 percent in Pittsburgh and what was about to come. Closest he came to suggesting anything might've been amiss was in acknowledging that his usage in 2024 seemed to come reluctantly, meaning that he'd have preferred being closer to the line of scrimmage, as he'd be later in the season.

• Man, Minkah sure had his time here, though. What a player. What a Steeler, rising up in AFC North games like few others around him. Never more so than on one brilliant Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati in 2022, as I columnized from there that day, with a pick-six, a pass breakup in the end zone, a blocked extra point with the game on the line and, just for fun, a game-high 14 tackles, 10 of them solos. As Devin Bush told me that day, “That’s a player, man. A special player. You hear what I’m sayin’?”

• A consummate pro, too. He'll be missed.