Forget family ties: Minkah Fitzpatrick's brother sends loud message to Alabama with latest announcement

Originally posted on A to Z Sports | By Ian Valentino | Last updated May 30, 2025 9:30 AM ET

The offseason is heating up with official visits at commitments from the top playmakers across the country. While signing day is still months away and nothing is made official in June, the Alabama Crimson Tide would rather be building a stacked class than a quiet one.

Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer has the Tide in the mix for some impressive defenders, but there's one that is a painful miss. The brother of former All-American Minkah Fitzpatrick, Justice Fitzpatrick, just dropped his top five list via On3's Hayes Fawcett.

Three SEC teams were featured, but not Alabama.

NEWS: Elite 2026 CB Justice Fitzpatrick is down to 5 Schools, he tells me for @on3recruits

The No. 4 CB in the nation is the brother of former Alabama & current NFL Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick

Where Should He Go? ⬇️https://t.co/0R3Id4JekJ pic.twitter.com/xFeAlaLwWS
— Hayes Fawcett (@Hayesfawcett3) May 29, 2025

Georgia, Florida, and Texas join Ohio State and Miami as the final contenders for the fourth-ranked cornerback in the nation. The high four-star from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is well-built at 6-feet tall and 185 pounds.

The Tide could use another cornerback in the class and more verbal commits overall, but they're out of this race while Georgia is trending the right way in the race.

The key is likely that Nick Saban is gone, and Kirby Smart was Minkah's defensive coordinator at Alabama when he won the Jim Thorpe Award in 2017. Saban was famously Minkah's reason for choosing the Tide at the time, and Justice likely wants to be featured in similar ways.

Minkah quickly went on to becoming the No. 11 overall pick by the Miami Dolphins before getting traded to the Pittsburgh Steelers. The multi-time Pro Bowler and NFL All-Pro is on pace for a Hall of Fame NFL career.

We'll see if Alabama can recover from this assumed loss and whether they can assemble another impressive class in the coming months. The time is ticking.

This article first appeared on A to Z Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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