Devin Bush had a rocky end of the season due to the very fact that he simply did not play much in the final two games, but Mike Tomlin quelled any speculation that it could be health-related.
In the final two games. he played a mere five snaps each during the games. That included Mark Robinson rising up and seizing a role against the Browns and Ravens. So, what was the reason for Bush’s lack of play? Tomlin pointed out that it was specifically matchup-related concerns.
“It was not health-related, but game-specific related,” Tomlin said. “We were talking earlier about the nature of those two teams down the stretch, and it minimized some of his opportunities in the division of labor to contribute. But we make those decisions week in and week out. It’s just football.”
Devin Bush simply got pushed out due to the run-heavy approach by the Browns and Ravens. Not only that, but Robert Spillane played most of the snaps on defense over the final quarter of the season. That was even with Myles Jack dealing with a groin injury, but Jack out-snapped Bush significantly as well.
As an impending free agent, it is hard to not harken back to the training camp comments that Bush made about his future in Pittsburgh. It seemed that Bush and the Steelers began to sour as a unit, and that the end of the season was not a symptom of that, but will not help that cause.
“It’s the business,” Bush said in August. “I mean, I’m gonna still be in the NFL. So, we’ll see.”
Pittsburgh has Spillane and Bush as free agents in the offseason. Meanwhile, Jack is due to a hefty cap hit for the 2023 season. The Steelers seem poised to overhaul the inside linebacker room, but there is a good chance that Bush is not part of that equation in the future.