His knee finally healed, Steelers LB Devin Bush playing with a 'whole new slate' in 2022

At this time a year ago, while his Pittsburgh Steelers teammates conducted voluntary workouts, Devin Bush slowly walked around the border of the field, dragging a rope with weighted plates attached.

The weights — steel-plated or metaphorical ones — have been removed this year for the Pittsburgh Steelers inside linebacker. Eighteen months after having a torn ACL repaired, Bush is doing the same drills as the rest of his teammates, and he couldn’t be happier.

“I get a chance to play football — for real,” Bush said Wednesday after an organized team activity at UPMC Rooney Sports Complex. “I get a chance to go out and be myself. I feel like I’m starting with a whole new slate, and I’m feeling pretty good about it.”

Bush didn’t have many good feelings last season in his recovery from an injury that cut short his 2020 season after just five games. Bush didn’t display the same type of burst or sideline-to-sideline pursuit that made him a No. 10 overall draft pick in 2019.

Although Bush started 14 of 17 games, he was replaced on passing downs in certain defensive packages, resulting in a career low in snaps. Coach Mike Tomlin even called Bush’s play “spotty at times” following a rough patch for the third-year linebacker in November.

The results weren’t entirely unexpected considering that players typically need at least a year following surgery before they are fully recovered from ACL repair. Bush admitted that “at times” his confidence wavered.

“I wasn’t happy with my play, of course,” he said. “I wasn’t happy with losing. I went through some things personally. It was all a learning process.”

It wasn’t until after the season that Bush realized how far he had come in his recovery. The results were tangible.

“I was running miles on the beach,” he said. “I was cutting, planting, jumping, playing around, and my knee wasn’t an issue. I was able to get back to that and doing normal things to get my confidence back in myself and my knee. That was a big part of my rehab.”

While Bush is back for his fourth season with the Steelers, there are no guarantees he will return for another. The Steelers decided last month not to exercise the fifth-year option on Bush’s contract, which would have paid him $10.892 million in 2023.

“I wasn’t butt hurt. I wasn’t (ticked) off or anything like that,” Bush said. “It was business. That’s how I look at it.”

Bush sees no reason to use his impending free agency as motivation to show the Steelers they made the wrong decision.

“I was already motivated regardless if they picked up my fifth year,” he said. “I’m just motivated to play football and to win.”

The unencumbered work Bush is doing on the practice fields this spring is a sampling. He has been taking regular reps alongside free-agent acquisition Myles Jack.

“I feel completely different,” Bush said. “This time last year, they were managing my reps. Now, I go out as soon as they snap the whistle. I’m feeling confident. I’m getting back into the groove of things of going out there and knowing the expectations and going out there with a whole new mindset and just playing football again.”

Before the injury, Bush was emerging as a playmaker in the middle of the Steelers defense. As a rookie, he had a team-high 109 tackles, plus two interceptions and a forced fumble. He started the first five games of his second season until he was injured against Cleveland.

“I thought I was doing good,” he said. “I was on the way to being an All-Pro Pro Bowler, but things happen. You go through some things. I learned a lot along the way. I think it was supposed to happen to me. I’m grateful for it, and I’m thankful I get a chance to play again.”