The Pittsburgh Steelers decided to decline the 5th year option for Devin Bush prior to the May 2 deadline. That means that Bush will now enter into the last season of his contract with the Steelers in 2022 instead of 2023. When the Steelers moved up 10 spots to select Bush in 2019 they believed Bush would be future for years to come. But the end could be much sooner than they anticipated one Draft night.
The Steelers traded up with the Denver Broncos to select Devin Bush in the first round of 2019.
After practice on Wednesday Bush spoke to reporters for the first time in months.
"I was already motivated you know regardless of whether they picked up my 5th year option or not," Bush continued. "Just motivated to play football and win."
Devin Bush: “I was already motivated( I didn’t need (the Steelers decline of) my 5th-year option (for motivation).” pic.twitter.com/CuVaJrDtVX
— Chris Adamski (@C_AdamskiTrib) June 1, 2022
Bush said he's been able to do things that he wasn't able to do last offseason during his rehabilitation. He spent two months running on the beach this offseason.
It seems that former general manager Kevin Colbert believes that there is a Bush that they saw prior to his injury, and one that they saw after. Speaking on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh after the Steelers declined Bush's option, Colbert dug into the Bush situation.
"To us, it's two Devin Bush's. Prior to that ACL injury, Devin was on a real positive track and he was the player we had hoped he would be when we made that trade. Coming out of that ACL last year, he wasn't quite the same," Colbert said. "And sometimes, most times it takes a good year to get through that injury, to get your game back to where you left off prior to. In making those business decisions, we have to okay, say where is the player currently, where could he be, and when we do that, if we don’t exercise the option, we always tell the player, look, we’re not giving up on you, we’re just taking a step back, you take a step back, look and see what happens. If you have a great year, good for you and good for us and then we can make those decisions. But again, I think we're evaluating two different Devin Bush's, and I know we're excited to see what he can do in 2023."
While the Steelers didn't bet on Bush directly by picking up his option, they bet on the fact that he can figure it out because they didn't bring in anyone to challenge him. What they did do was bring in Myles Jack to upgrade the talent next to him, and gave him Brian Flores to mentor him.
