The Steelers have a number of linebackers fighting for the same role. Here’s who could earn the most playing time alongside Devin Bush.
Steelers linebacker, Devin Bush, has shown a lot of promise early in his NFL career. Unfortunately, the 22-year-old suffered a major setback in 2020 as his season was lost after just 5 games due to an ACL tear. Pittsburgh didn’t trade up to the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft for nothing, and they clearly have high hopes for Bush.
While it’s no secret that Bush will be manning the ‘Mack’ linebacker role for the foreseeable future, Pittsburgh is going to be looking for the next man they can pair with him in a starting role as the ‘Buck’ long-term. This is a role that has been largely occupied by Vince Williams since joining the league back in 2013.
Though Williams has been a very good player in his time with his ability to blitz and play the run, he has become very one-dimensional in his old age and is coming off his worst-graded season since his rookie year, according to Pro Football Focus.
Now at age 31, Williams is clearly a liability in pass coverage. Though the veteran linebacker managed to play 65 percent of snaps last season, according to Pro Football Reference, this was largely because the Steelers had virtually no depth last year when Bush was on Injured Reserve. In 2019 with Bush and Mark Barron on the field, Williams played just 37 percent of defensive snaps.
Obviously, we know that Vince Williams is not the future of this team at linebacker, but the Steelers are still searching for that player who can really step up as a starter opposite of Devin Bush. Here is each candidate that will have a chance to this guy for the team in the future: