Good Wednesday to you Steelers fans.
Vince Williams, the former Steelers linebacker, decided to chime in on Devin Bush’s situation yesterday. As you know, the former first round draft pick has been less than good this season and seems to be getting worse. Here were Williams’ tweets on the subject.
Devin is coming off of a major injury, his coach’s wife died, and he’s missing 2 of his starting linemen. Ppl called Bud a bust and then begged him to take “a home town discount to stay”. Btw, Devin Bush is 23 years old. If he plays till he’s 30 that’s 7 years to turn his career
— Vince Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) November 30, 2021
Devin’s game has always centered around explosion and power. It takes an athlete 8-12 months just to get back from an ACL. It’s going to take at least double that to get back the high level of cutting and exploding that’s needed to look like a top 10 pick.
— Vince Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) November 30, 2021
This isn’t even considering the physiological issues he must overcome, nor does it take into account all the lost reps and experience he’s missed out on while nursing his injury.
— Vince Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) November 30, 2021
His effort could and should be better. BUT how can you ask him to lead the defense coming off that injury at 23…. while his confidence is in shambles????
— Vince Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) November 30, 2021
This is obviously bigger than Devin and the media is using him as a scapegoat. It’s easy to pick on an underperforming top pick. Let’s not burry someone pre maturely because it’s convenient.
— Vince Williams (@VinnyVidiVici98) November 30, 2021
It’s difficult to argue with what Williams had to say. For me personally, I haven’t totally thrown in the towel on Bush yet but one thing I can’t shake is this. I get that fixating on a major knee injury can mess with us in many ways but is overall lack of effort one of those? One cannot deny that Bush just looks completely disinterested at times. He doesn’t fight to get off blocks and when he does get into position to make tackles it’s almost like the ball carrier is covered in grease as he just kind of slides off of them. Perhaps this is a by product of what he’s dealing with mentally but honestly, how big of a liability will he be before being replaced? With Robert Spillane out the inside linebackers corps is awfully thin and seemingly getting thinner.
Tomlin Presser
My hope that someone would ask him about what music he would be playing at practice but that didn’t happen. Tomlin did however make a jab at Chase Claypool’s “we need to play music at practice” comment.
I wasn't expecting this response from Tomlin when I asked about Claypool and his practice music request. MT wasn't amused:
"Ya know,Claypool plays wideout and I will let him do that. I'll formulate the practice approach and I think that division of labor is probably appropriate"
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) November 30, 2021
I believe that’s Tomlin’s way of saying shut up.
Thoughts on to How Win Sunday
The Steelers have a lot of problems right now but that doesn’t mean they can’t win. Offensively they have to go no huddle. Not “hurry up” mind you but no huddle. Some call it a “muddle” where the team comes to the line of scrimmage immediately after the previous play while Ben Roethlisberger directs traffic and calls the play. Throughout his career it has consistently been one of the more successful ways of him doing things. Defensively, the Steelers are going to have to take some risks. Lamar Jackson is always a threat to burn you on the ground despite his lack of success against the Steelers. Keith Butler will need to be creative with pressure and he’ll need to trust some guys that may otherwise struggle to do so.
Banner
As much as everyone wants to know what is going on with Stephon Tuitt there’s an equal amount asking why isn’t Zach Banner playing more? Personally I believe he would be an instant upgrade to the run game. I also believe however the coaching staff is concerned about his ability to protect in passing situations. Until we are told more that’s the biggest reason in my mind as to why he isn’t playing. Could that be one of the changes Mike Tomlin hinted at? I’m hopeful that it is.
Pro Bowl
Voting for the 2022 NFL Pro Bowl is now underway. You can vote for all of your favorite Steelers by clicking this link right here. I’m of the opinion that Chris Boswell, Cam Heyward, Diontae Johnson and T.J. Watt should 100% be on their way to this game.
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