This offseason should mark the end of an ugly era for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Inside linebacker Devin Bush is headed to free agency and there is almost zero chance he returns and will instead sign his second contract with another team. Once Bush has moved on, we can officially say Bush is the biggest draft bust of the Kevin Colbert era.
One reason the Bush pick is so bad in hindsight is because of the trade. The Steelers drafted Bush in the first round of the 2019 NFL draft with the No. 10 overall pick. The Steelers acquired him by trading their No. 20 overall pick and the No. 59 overall pick to the Denver Broncos as well as the No. 83 pick in the 2020 NFL draft so they could go up and get Bush. More on that in a moment.
Another reason this pick stung was that the move didn’t get the Steelers the top inside linebacker in the draft. That was Devin White, who went at No. 5 overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. White has played like a star in his early career and it really highlights how much Pittsburgh paid to go get the second inside linebacker, a position not highly valued, to begin with.
Bush’s career has been marred by injury, underwhelming performance and a lackadaisical attitude about his future with the Steelers. The Steelers could have done so much more with those picks spent to draft a guy who couldn’t catch up to the speed and complexity of the league and didn’t seem to want to in 2022.
Let us know in the comments if you consider Bush a bust and if so where do you rank him among the worst in Steelers history?
