When inside linebacker Ryan Shazier went down with his back injury in 2017, we could have never imagined just how difficult it would be to replace him. Steelers writer Chris Adamski shared this list of the players the Steelers have tried to replace Shazer with to no avail which brought it perfectly into focus just what a special player Shazier was and how lucky Pittsburgh was to have him.
This list is in addition to Devin Bush who the Steelers made a huge trade-up to get in the 2018 NFL draft. He never saw a second contract with Pittsburgh. Every year when the NFL draft comes around, we hope the Steelers will commit to a top inside linebacker, even after the failure of Bush.
This season, the Steelers have brought in three more potential replacements and we will go out on a limb and say none of them will be anything close to Shazier.
We don’t offer this as a criticism to the Steelers front office. It is more to illustrate just what a special player the Steelers had and how every player coming in will be held to that standard. When Shazier was drafted, the comparison that was made was to Lawrence Timmons and it took no time for Shazier to exceed expectations.
Shazier casts a huge shadow and it is probably time to move on from the hope that picking up castoffs in free agency will ever be that type of impact player and focus on building the rest of the defense to account for his loss. Then, maybe someday another generational player like Shazier will fall into the laps of the Steelers.
Since Ryan Shazier's career-ending injury, 28+yr-old vets the Steelers acquired to start at ILB:
'17: Sean Spence
'18: Jon Bostic
'19: Mark Barron
'20: Avery Williamson
'21:Joe Schobert
'22: Myles Jack
'23: Elandon Roberts/Kwon AlexanderNone thus far have lasted more than 1 yr
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) July 30, 2023
