Can attention to detail deliver Minkah Fitzpatrick and the Steelers to the leave off.

Pittsburgh The Pittsburgh Steelers’ locker room features a black and yellow carpet with a spotless white emblem in the center.

The logo itself, surrounded in light gray and featuring the Steelers’ iconic yellow, red, and blue diamonds, isn’t particularly unique, nor is the way it’s placed. The black block letters that contain the team name are what set it apart.

What’s interesting are the ten stanchions that encircle it, using retractable, flat nylon belts to rope off the 6-foot-wide circle from foot traffic.

Many clubs have customs and superstitions that prevent players from tromping on their emblems. The Steelers discussed for years whether or not to impose a no-contact policy on the locker room.

Fitzpatrick Minkah did not release a statement. didn’t leave a message on the big white board that welcomes each athlete to the locker room. didn’t message a group within the team.

Rather, following a brief exchange between the equipment staff and the Steelers safety department, an order for stanchions was placed, delivered, and put together around the recently steam-cleaned logo before to the team’s June mandatory minicamp meeting at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

The All-Pro safety takes this approach to everything; it carefully and softly arranges each component until the whole creates a mosaic masterpiece. That’s what, after a career-high six interceptions in the previous season, makes him perhaps the best safety in the NFL.

Fitzpatrick is bringing his meticulous habits to the locker room as he begins his fifth season in Pittsburgh, hoping that by focusing on the things, the team will be able to achieve the kind of success that has evaded them since their last postseason victory in 2016.

The current Steelers generation is the first to acknowledge that their team’s six-year playoff win drought doesn’t measure up to the high bar established by the previous generation, while coming from a Super Bowl-winning tradition. Following Fitzpatrick’s lead, the Steelers used the preseason to emphasize the elements they believe will propel them back into the elite division of competitors. The season opener is set for Sunday, 1 p.m. ET on Fox, against the San Francisco 49ers, the 2022 NFC runners-up. Fitzpatrick described the Steelers’ criteria as “very clear.” “We’re just beginning back to it.”