Good Friday to you Steelers’ fans.
Next Wednesday, March 15th, the National Football League will officially begin the 2023 season. This is also the start of the free agent period (legal tampering starts on the 13th) as well. It is widely expected that the Pittsburgh Steelers will make no attempt to bring back Devin Bush. The former linebacker was drafted 10th overall after the Steelers traded up to get him. Few at the time had a problem with this simply because the Steelers were so needy at the position. We may always wonder what might have been in two ways in regards to Bush. First, what if he never suffered that ACL tear early in his second season? Unfortunately we will never know but one can assume his play would have continued to improve. The other way we may wonder ‘what might have been’ is in regards to who else could have been selected. At the time, the Steelers had the 20th pick before trading up with Denver. They could have had such players as S Darnell Savage, RB Josh Jacobs or DE Montez Sweat. As you know, the Draft is nothing more than a lottery. Sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. Kevin Colbert did the right thing in trading up to get Bush – the loss of Ryan Shazier was massive – so I don’t think it’s fair to criticize the move. It’s also not fair to ask the question that I have. We have no idea ‘what might have been’ with Bush. We can only live in the present and that present tells us we are right back to 2019… We need a linebacker.
The Podcast
Episode 310 of the SCB Steelers Podcast presented by DEK Roofing Inc is available for your viewing and/or listening pleasure. We discussed ‘the one guy’ we would most want in this draft plus we talked free agency, Lamar Jackson and the Ravens and much more!!
Tweet of the Day… Old guy tweet coming in!!!!
Nothing says “probable douchebag” like a grown man in a backwards baseball cap. I will exempt Ken Griffey Jr. from this. On second thought, he’s over 50 now so he can turn his fucking cap around too.
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) March 9, 2023
Free Agent Primer
Not long after the season finished for the Black and Gold I put together our “free agent primer” listing all of our Unrestricted, Restricted and Exclusive Rights Free Agents. I also added in predictions of who goes and who stays so debate away! All eyes now turn to guys like Cam Sutton, Terrell Edmunds and Larry Ogunjobi among others.
Comps
The Steelers were not awarded any compensatory draft picks by the NFL. The 49ers lead the way with a whopping seven! Comp picks are given when you lose players in free agency. There is then a formula that determines whether the pick is a third, fourth, firth, sixth or seventh. A comp pick can never be higher than a third. In a season where the Steelers could truly use more picks, this is unfortunate but expected.
Prospect Profiles
We’ve started our NFL Draft Coverage here at SCB and the first of our Position Profiles is out. We’ve made the decision that rather than make extensive profiles of each player, we are doing smaller ones and grouping them by position. This allows us to easier update information as Pro Days and the Combine provide more info.
Our Online Store
Please visit our online store! We have been so fortunate to work with DC4L Custom Tees! They are wonderful to work with and are willing to work with you on just about any design you can come up with!
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