For someone who plays his position with such acceleration, Devin Bush is happy to see the information flow at inside linebacker begin to decelerate as he prepares for his second NFL season.

“It’s a lot better than last year,” said Bush, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ first-round pick in 2019. “Last year was my first year, and it was just getting caught up to speed with everything changing around me. Leading up to Year 2, everything has slowed down a lot more for me. I’m a lot more familiar with who I’m playing with and the schemes I’m playing in.

“My comfort (level) has definitely gotten a lot better and a lot stronger based off last year.”

Such adjustments are typical of NFL players once they’ve spent a year with an organization learning the playbook and assigned roles on the roster. Bush, the No. 10 overall draft pick and the team’s rookie of the year, is no exception.

Bush became the first Steelers rookie to amass more than 100 tackles, and the Steelers are asking him to take on a larger role in the defensive communication. It doesn’t hurt that Bush is being paired this year with veteran Vince Williams after taking most of his snaps in 2019 alongside Mark Barron, who was released in March.

“I think last year I came in, went in and played. I learned as things came to me,” Bush said Friday on a video conference with reporters. “Now, I have a pretty good idea of what I want to get done, how I can help this team win more and what I can do better as a player to help this team win.

“I’m just challenging myself every day to try new things and do different things and put different skill sets inside my game.”

Williams, who is entering his eighth season, noticed an improved maturation in Bush when his teammate arrived for training camp in late July.

“He has a nice little system that he is working with,” Williams said. “He comes in the building at a consistent time every day. Those are things that you don’t really see from a young guy that doesn’t really have that formula for success. But I am starting to see he is starting to develop that, and I think he’s going to be better with it.”

Bush said his offseason goal was to get “more efficient” in his movements on the field. Already possessing the speed to make tackles from one sideline to the other, Bush set out to take more precise routes to the ball.

“I’m not saying my movements were bad, but just playing in the system I played in in college and switching to another system in the league, things have to change. I had to get leaner. I had to train differently. I think I’ve done a good job of that.”

Case in point: In a coverage drill at practice Wednesday, Bush was paired up with rookie running back Anthony McFarland, a familiar face from the Big Ten — Bush at Michigan and McFarland at Maryland.

It was a matchup of players who ran 4.44-second 40-yard dashes at the NFL Combine.

McFarland ran a post route, and Bush matched him stride for stride before sticking out his hand to deflect the pass at the last second.

“He’s learned a lot from me, and I’ve learned a lot from him,” Bush said. “Iron sharpens iron, so we get each other ready to take those live reps and go into the game action and put it on display.”  

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