According to defensive coordinator Keith Butler, the Steelers had a pretty simple plan for the first round of the 2019 NFL Draft.
That plan was to take the best available linebacker named Devin. They couldn’t move up to nab Devin White before the Buccaneers took him with the fifth pick, but they were able to strike a deal with the Broncos to get to No. 10. That left them in position to take Devin Bush.
After working with Bush for the last few weeks, Butler said General Manager Kevin Colbert did a “great thing” by making that trade.
“I’m not going to criticize the guys that we had there before, but we needed help there and Kevin did a good job of helping us out there,” Butler said, via the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. “I’m glad we got him. I hope we can use him, and he has success. I think he wills, but who knows? You don’t know until they start playing. They all look good in shorts. It matters when they get those pads on. . . . The two things I can’t teach them are being aggressive, and the other is speed. He’s got natural speed in terms of hitting. That’s something his mother and daddy gave him, so I’ll be interested to see what kind of hitter he is.”
Butler noted that the Steelers landed Troy Polamalu the last time they moved up in the first round. That’s a big name to throw out before Bush has played a snap, but it’s clear the team is expecting a lot of the linebacker.