PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Returning from a knee injury suffered against the Browns, Devin Bush is a part of Steelers voluntary workouts on the South Side. The 2019 first round pick says he’s about 80 to 90% and will be ready for the start of camp next month.
Right now the starting middle linebacker is doing mostly individual work. He said he’s held out of competition, but basically doing everything else to get back to football again.
Bush hurt his knee early in the October 18 game hosting Cleveland and missed the remainder of the season. The 22-year-old already had 5 tackles in that game with a half sack and a QB hit. Now it’s trying to get back to that form.
“It’s definitely the mental part,” Bush said. “Physically you can recover from it. It’s the mental part of getting out there full speed without thinking about it.”
He worked out a lot with Zach Banner as his training partner and thought it was a good idea to do almost all of it in Pittsburgh.
“They made a big investment in me,” Bush said. “For them to track my progress and be with me every step of the way. They kind of know where I’m at and where I should be. They keep a sharp eye on me and make sure I can deal with this injury from here on out.”
Bush said it was hard to sit back and watch the team last year without him. As he was viewing, he became a fan of what Robert Spillane was doing filling in for him.
“I watched him a lot last year,” Bush said. “I like his game a lot. Always been a fan of him ever since I saw him play the position. I expect Rob to take off from where he was last year and for us to feed off each other.”
In a real surprise after his release, 31-year-old linebacker Vince Williams took a major pay cut to return to the Steelers this season.
“Having an experienced guy in the room, in the linebacking room,” Bush said of Williams. “Just a guy who has a lot of knowledge and a lot of experience from the game. Being able to develop younger guys and develop guys like myself to play bigger roles in the future.”
Bush sees his role growing, to be a linebacker who can cover players like Browns receiver Jarvis Landry. His rookie year, Bush had 109 tackles, 9 tackles for loss and 4 fumble recoveries. He’s not that far off and believes he’ll be better than ever this year with no fear of his ACL tear.
“It’s something I went through and dealt with and it's in the past now.”