The Pittsburgh Steelers have had a great deal of success in the draft over the years. Kevin Colbert was a master at keeping this franchise stocked with young talent during his reign as general manager. He did however have his share of busts from time to time. After his play, or lack of it over the past two weeks, we can now say that Devin Bush can be considered among the biggest Steelers draft busts in recent memory.
Bush only managed ten snaps in the team’s final two games of the season. Two crucial games with the team fighting for its playoff lives, against division rivals no less. Mike Tomlin was asked about it during his year end press conference. His answer was pretty damning. Tomlin said “It was not health related, but game plan specific” when asked why Bush saw such little action. Translation….Bush can’t be trusted in games where the opponents have run heavy schemes. To put it bluntly, Devin Bush is not a suitable inside linebacker for AFC North football.
The Steelers coming to that realization with Bush really throws doubt on how they evaluate the position. Since the injury to Ryan Shazier, Pittsburgh has had a revolving door at the inside linebacker. What makes this even worse is the fact the team traded up to get Devin Bush. Trading up from 20 to 10 in that draft cost them a second and a third round pick. That deal turned out to be a waste of assets for this franchise. We took a look at all the players the Steelers could have had if they had stayed at pick 20 here: Reviewing the trade up for Devin Bush: Was it the right move?
Anytime the subject of Steelers draft busts comes up, we think of players like Jarvis Jones and Artie Burns There’s no denying both those players were huge disappointments as first round picks. When you factor in the extra assets it took to acquire Devin Bush, and the fact he was a top ten pick, there is a really good argument he is number one. In fairness, Bush probably did have the best season out of any of the three. His 100 tackle rookie season gave us all hope that he would finally solve this franchise’s inside linebacker riddle.
Unfortunately since then it has been all down hill. A knee injury forced Bush to miss almost an entire season, and he hasn’t been the same since. Fully recovered now, he became essentially unplayable the last few weeks of the season. The name Devin Bush will now be synonymous with other infamous Steelers draft busts. Quite possibly the biggest name of all.