Steelers likely to send a clear message to Devin Bush about his future in Pittsburgh
By Josh Hill
There are changes on the horizon for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and that’s not the best news for the future of Devin Bush.
To say this season has gone off the rails for the Pittsburgh Steelers is to assume there were rails, to begin with.
Expectations coming into the season were that Ben Roethlishberger’s likely final season with the team would end with a trip to the Super Bowl. Instead, this season has been a trip to the bottom of the AFC North and a Steelers team that is almost unrecognizably bad.
Pittsburgh is 5-5-1, which means playoff hopes are still alive in a wide-open AFC field. But those hopes are on life support and the season is on the cusp of being lost. The Steelers are a game out of last place in the AFC North and the window to send Big Ben out on top is closing fast.
That means changes are already being thought about by those both in and around the Steelers.
Long time Steelers beat writer Ed Bouchette walked through a thought exercise in The Athletic that involved looking at what Pittsburgh has right now and what it needs to do to get better in 2022.
It’s a long read, for obvious reasons, but one player that gets singled out is linebacker Devin Bush.
Bouchette notes that the team “certainly will not” pick up the fifth-year option on his contract, which means he’ll head to unrestricted free agency after the 2022 season. Bush will have at least one more year with the Steelers, but the writing appears to already be on the wall for a guy who Pittsburgh moved up in the NFL Draft to select back in 2019.
Trading up is not something the Steelers typically do, which meant the pressure for Bush to live up to expectations was already high from the start. Add to that the fact that he was drafted with the idea he’d replace Ryan Shazier and it’s easy to see how the less-than-spectacular results have resulted in mounting frustrations coming to a head.
Compounding the issue is the fact that had the Steelers stayed at No. 20 overall, they could have added a meaningful piece of the roster in someone like A.J. Brown, Montez Sweat, or Rock Ya-Sin. All players who are key parts of rosters competing for playoff spots this season.
It’s not just Bouchette who sees the writing on the wall for Bush. CBS insider Jason La Confora reported on Sunday that while Bush is ‘well liked’ by the Steelers, his lack of development has caused frustration.
It’s unclear what the future holds for anyone in the Steelers locker room. If there’s one thing the organization has made clear over the years, however, it’s that they’re not afraid to cut bait when an experiment has reached its conclusion.