Steely McBeam
Well-known member
- Mar 20, 2019
- 2,135
- 0
Getty Images
During his pre-draft press conference this week, Steelers General Manager Kevin Colbert said that the team had “less urgent” needs as a result of free agency and that he was hoping to draft players who wouldn’t be needed on the field immediately.
In the grand history of pre-draft press conferences being overstuffed with hot air, it took almost no time for the Steelers to make a move that flew in the face of those words. The team traded their second-round pick and a 2020 third-rounder to move from 20th to 10th in order to select linebacker Devin Bush.
The move fills a need that the team has had since Ryan Shazier‘s spinal injury and Colbert called Bush a “unique football player” who wasn’t going to be around if they didn’t make a big move.
“As an inside linebacker, his game is really predicated on what is needed to play the position in modern-day NFL football,” Colbert said, via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “He cannot only play the run he has exceptional cover abilities. We’re very, very excited to be able to move up and get a young player, a young man, like Devin Bush.”
The last time the Steelers made a jump like that to take a defensive player in the first round, they took safety Troy Polamalu. Colbert would love to see this deal work out anywhere close to as well as that one.