Devin Bush confident he, Vince Williams can shoulder Steelers ILB workload
Mark Barron is gone. Tyler Matakevich, too. No reinforcements were added via free agency, and no direct help is coming in from the draft.
That leaves Devin Bush and Vince Williams as something of the last men standing at inside linebacker for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2020.
But Bush is confident if that remains the case, the Steelers defense will be just fine.
“If it comes down to me and Vince taking all the reps, I don’t think we’ve got a problem doing it,” Bush, who won’t turn 22 until July, said during a video call with Pittsburgh reporters Tuesday.
Moments earlier, Bush expressed even more swagger regarding the abilities of himself and eight-year veteran Williams to shoulder the load of virtually an entire team’s worth of inside linebacker snaps.
“I have no doubt that me and Vince will go out there and control the defense,” Bush said.
They might have to, at least inasmuch as the inside linebackers typically are called upon to be chief communicators for an NFL defense. The rest of the ILBs on the current roster account for a combined one NFL defensive snap. That comes from Robert Spillane, who has been cut three times in two seasons since being an undrafted free agent from Western Michigan.
The Steelers added two undrafted free agents immediately after not using any of their six draft picks on an inside linebacker: Mississippi State’s Leo Lewis and USC’s John Houston. In the context of accepting the inherent flaws that come with undrafted players, each offers intrigue. The 6-foot-2, 245-pound Lewis was rated by 247 Sports as the No. 1 inside linebacker recruit in the nation in 2015, the same year Houston (6-3, 220) was rated among the top 50 overall prospects.
Still, particularly during this unique coronavirus-affected offseason in which rookie acclimation could prove more difficult, betting on undrafted rookies is typically a shaky proposition. That leaves only Ulysees Gilbert as a viable alternative to Williams and Bush as a natural inside linebacker.
A sixth-round pick last year, Gilbert showed flashes he eventually could handle a role on defense, and Bush praised him Tuesday. But outside of a possible Gilbert emergence or perhaps coordinator Keith Butler electing to deploy safeties in a hybrid-like linebacker role, it is likely inside linebacker for the 2020 Steelers will be the sole domain of Bush and Williams.
“The (inside) linebacker group is not real strong this year.” https://t.co/wsrqiWCIza
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) April 19, 2020
According to pro-football-reference.com, Williams’ playing time dropped to 37% of the Steelers’ 2019 defensive snaps after the Steelers signed Barron in the spring. But after Barron’s release eight weeks ago, Williams, 30, appears in line to revert back to the 71-75% of the defensive snaps he played for the Steelers in 2017-18.
Bush played 82% of the Steelers’ defensive snaps as a rookie last season. He insists he could play more if asked.
“I’ll take any amount of reps,” he said. “It don’t really bother me too much, nor do I think it is a big load. I was able to handle it last year, so I kind of got an idea of what I’m stepping into and how I can handle it for a whole season.”
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Chris Adamski is a TribLive reporter who has covered primarily the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2014 following two seasons on the Penn State football beat. A Western Pennsylvania native, he joined the Trib in 2012 after spending a decade covering Pittsburgh sports for other outlets. He can be reached at cadamski@triblive.com.
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