As top-10 draft pick in his 3rd season, Steelers LB Devin Bush ‘needs to play better’

Devin Bush has played in two meaningful football games over the past 50 weeks, and he’s coming off major surgery.

But after a game in which he did not manage a solo tackle as a starting inside linebacker, it’s fair to evaluate Bush’s play as less than peak.

“If you ask him, he’ll tell you he can play better,” Pittsburgh Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler said Thursday. “I think if I was a player on this defense, I would always say that. ‘I can play better than I did.’ He needs to play better.”

Bush was the defense’s second-lowest graded starter during last week’s 24-10 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, according to Pro Football Focus. In playing 38 of the Steelers’ 47 defensive snaps, Bush had only two assisted tackles to show for his stat line.

And while numbers alone don’t necessarily reflect the play of a defensive player, big plays from Bush have been largely few and far between over his three NFL seasons. In 23 games, Bush has two interceptions, two forced fumbles, nine tackles for loss and two sacks. But he hasn’t had an interception or tackle for loss since his rookie 2019 season.

For a player for whom the Steelers traded up to select at No. 10 overall, that probably isn’t what management had in mind.

Still, Bush is just 23, and he’s still less than a year removed from suffering a torn ACL during an October game last season. He also missed one game this season because of a groin injury. Additionally, Bush has cycled through running mates in the middle of the defense. Mark Barron, Vince Williams, Robert Spillane and now Joe Schobert have manned the other inside linebacker spot alongside Bush. Schobert was acquired midway through training camp.

“I just think between him and Joe trying to get that cohesiveness together, trying to balance each other out,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said. “He’s coming off a tough injury, but every week we’ve just got to think he’s going to be getting better and better. Whether it’s communication wise or what he’s seeing, what he’s feeling — taking time off, you always have to knock of some rust, so, hopefull,y by the end of this thing he’s feeling really good.”

As inside linebackers, Bush and Schobert are expected to swallow up the bulk of the tackles in the running game as well as have responsibilities in coverage of running backs and tight ends on passing plays.

So far this season, according to PFF, among the inside linebackers with at least 50 snaps in which they were in coverage, only eight have a worse passer rating when targeted than Bush (125.0).

Bush had six solo tackles in the season opener at the Buffalo Bills.

“I still feel like it’s pretty early,” Bush said when asked to evaluate himself this season. “Obviously, me and Joe are still building that connection. I would probably say it’s not doing so good just because of the losses we took (as a team). But there is always room for improvement.”

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