Steelers rookies making big contributions, but Tomlin is mindful of their minutes

For the first half of Devin Bush’s rookie season with the Pittsburgh Steelers, he played no fewer than 76% of all defensive snaps in a game and he logged every defensive snap on three occasions.

In the five games that followed, the inside linebacker exceeded 76% of the snaps just once as coach Mike Tomlin and his staff monitored Bush’s playing time.

The reduction was done with December in mind. Tomlin wanted Bush, who, like all other young players transitioning from a 12-game college schedule to 16 in the NFL, to be fresh for the Steelers’ playoff push that continued Sunday night against the Buffalo Bills.

Bush, the team’s first-round pick from Michigan, entered the game leading the Steelers with 88 tackles.

“Too much exposure can be negative in young guys, and that’s why we’ve been thoughtful about the exposure of these people,” Tomlin said. “That’s why we don’t play Devin Bush in all packages, although he has the talent to play in all packages.”

Tomlin didn’t have such a luxury last year with first-round pick Terrell Edmunds. Because of an injury to veteran Morgan Burnett and a lack of depth at safety, Edmunds was asked to play 92.5% of the defensive snaps.

Even with the reduction in playing time in recent weeks, Bush still has averaged nearly 82% of the defensive snaps through 13 games. That doesn’t count the playing time Bush received in the four-game preseason, another aspect of the professional game that doesn’t exist in college.

“I haven’t done it before, haven’t played a 20-game season before,” Bush said. “I understand the things coaches are doing.”

Bush is not the only rookie on the roster going through the development process. Tomlin has asked the coaching staff to monitor wide receiver Diontae Johnson’s snap counts, as well.

Unlike Bush, Johnson wasn’t counted on to be one of the team’s top wide receivers when the season began. JuJu Smith-Schuster was healthy, and veteran Donte Moncrief was expected to be a contributor.

So much for those best-laid plans. Johnson has played in all 13 games, starting nine, and he has played nearly 63% of all offensive snaps.

Since Week 3, Johnson has averaged between 34-53 snaps.

“He doesn’t play 60 snaps a game, although he’s been available to us, because we wanted to manage that exposure because too much exposure is negative,” Tomlin said. “We also realize that as we push into Game 14 that most of these guys, unless they played at Alabama or somewhere, are in uncharted territory. So we’re thoughtful about that exposure.

“We want them to be young people on the rise as we get to this portion of the season.”

Bush has emerged as one of the NFL’s top rookies and is the only one this season with a fumble recovery (four), interception (two) a forced fumble and at least 30 tackles. He has been involved in seven of the team’s NFL-high 33 takeaways.

Johnson is coming off his best game, setting a franchise record for longest touchdown on a punt return by going 85 yards to the end zone against Arizona. He also has 42 catches for 483 yards and four touchdowns — all three figures ranking among the top 10 rookie wide receivers.

“It’s different because in college, I would be done by now, but we still have plenty of games to go,” Johnson said.

For various reasons, the Steelers have relied on nine rookie contributors this season. That includes the most important position, quarterback, where undrafted free agent Devlin Hodges made his fourth NFL start Sunday. Last week, he became the first nonreplacement quarterback to win his first three NFL starts as an undrafted player.

The other rookie contributors:

• Running back Benny Snell has played in 10 games, starting one, and is second on the team with 320 rushing yards.

• Outside linebacker Ulysees Gilbert played in seven games on special teams before landing on injured reserve.

• Isaiah Buggs has played in the defensive line rotation the past seven games since Stephon Tuitt suffered a season-ending injury.

• Cornerback Justin Layne has appeared in eight games on special teams and got a helmet last weekend instead of veteran Artie Burns.

• Zach Gentry will play in a fifth game Sunday night because of veteran tight end Vance McDonald’s concussion.

• Kerrith Whyte took part in the running back rotation the previous three weeks and is averaging 6.7 yards per carry since being signed from the Chicago Bears practice squad.