Zach Banner, Devin Bush make appearance on field during Steelers' OTA session

Zach Banner equated his pairing with Devin Bush in the Pittsburgh Steelers offseason conditioning program to Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito from the movie “Twins.”

The big man wasn’t off base.

Banner stands 6-foot-8 and is listed at 335 pounds. Bush is 5-11 and is 101 pounds lighter.

“I call him my little mini-twin,” Banner said.

Size aside, the Steelers players have shared a common thread since the 2020 season ended. They have been rehab partners in the team’s training facility at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex.

Banner, a fifth-year tackle, and Bush, a third-year inside linebacker, have spent the past four-plus months working their way back from ACL tears that cut short their 2020 seasons.

They trained in shifts in the therapy pool, they were partners in the weight room and earlier this week, they dragged weighted plates around the perimeter of a practice field while teammates participated in organized team activities.

The process was amped up a notch Thursday and, as has been the case all offseason, Banner and Bush did it together. They were in uniform, wore a helmet and, for the first time this spring, they took part in some noncontact drills on the third day of OTAs.

It couldn’t have come at a better time for Banner, who was made available to the media for interviews after practice.

“I’m like a dog on a leash right now,” said Banner, who tore his ACL in the season opener against the New York Giants. “They keep pulling back, keep pulling back.”

Despite the reining in the Steelers have done to keep the two starters from overdoing it in the offseason, the session was another step toward Banner and Bush being fully healthy when training camp begins in less than two months.

“We’re all on schedule,” Banner said.

That goes for mentally as well as physically, Banner said.

“The hardest part of this injury process is getting back to being comfortable after you do heal,” he said. “I’m really happy to say we are both in that process.”

The stakes are high for Banner, who signed a two-year, $9.5 million contract with the Steelers to avoid free agency. He is being counted upon to start at right tackle, the position he won in a 2020 training camp competition with Chuks Okorafor only to see his season end after fewer than four quarters.

Banner is anxious to get back to work but not at the expense of delaying his return to the starting lineup.

“One thing you’re not going to have to tell me is to give effort and be there,” Banner said of his presence at offseason workouts. “It’s not only for the other guys to be around the team, it’s to get visual reps for myself. … It’s also a good thing for myself mentally getting through this. Pulling at the leash bugs me. I feel good, I’m feeling better every day, but the overall goal is the regular season.”

Wearing a black cutoff T-shirt and shorts, Banner took part in some blocking drills during the individual portion of practice. Bush, wearing a full yellow practice uniform, worked out on an adjacent field with the inside linebackers. Then, both players reconvened with strength and conditioning coach Garrett Giemont.

“There is a checklist that none of you have, but I have, coach Gee has, coach Tomlin has,” Banner said. “That checklist, we’ve been knocking them off, knocking them off. I’m not going out there doing 50 reps, but I’m doing stuff off to the side working by myself.”

Bush was five games into his second season when it ended with his noncontact ACL tear in October against Cleveland. His return to the practice field also brought a smile to Banner’s face.

“My guy has been working day in and day out right next to me,” he said. “I can’t say anything bad about him. He hasn’t missed a day. He’s been out here all offseason just like me. We live out here in Pittsburgh. We’re yinzers. We put on the black and gold. We understand that, and we welcome it.”