Butler huge fan of GM’s draft strategy
Inside LB Bush is a game-changer
Kevin Colbert’s biggest fan on draft night just might have been inside the war room with him. No one knew what the Steelers defense was missing more than defensive coordinator Keith Butler, who unsuccessfully tried to piece together a strong unit without speedy, sideline-to-sideline linebacker Ryan Shazier.
Shazier isn’t coming back this season, but the Steelers did the next best thing April 25 when they traded up to get Michigan linebacker Devin Bush, who in many ways is a Shazier clone with his ability to chase down ball carriers and defend passes.
“I’m glad Kevin did what he did to be honest with you,” Butler said Wednesday morning at Steelers minicamp. “We knew what we wanted in the draft. The guys we wanted were the Devins — both Devins. When [Devin White] went early, Kevin did a great thing moving up.
“The last time we moved up, what happened? We took Troy Polamalu, and we went to three Super Bowls and won two of them. Doing that puts a lot of pressure on us, but that’s OK. I’m good with that. I hope it helps us a lot, and I think it will. He’s still a rookie. There will be great expectations for him, and he knows that. That’s OK. In order to be successful in this league you have to perform under pressure.”
Bush is expected to start alongside either veteran Vince Williams or Mark Barron, who was signed as a free agent in March. The addition of a three-down linebacker could help the Steelers defense regain its swagger. When Shazier manned the middle from 2014-2017, the Steelers went to the playoffs four consecutive seasons. Without him last year, they missed the postseason for the first time since 2013.
Butler said the big difference in the defensive performance last season came in the final two minutes of games. The Steelers surrendered fourth-quarter leads late in the season to the Los Angeles Chargers, Oakland Raiders and New Orleans Saints. If the Steelers had won any of those games, they would have made the playoffs. Instead, they finished 9-6-1, and the Ravens overtook them for first in the AFC North.
“To me, winning football games has a lot to do with what’s happening in the final two minutes,” he said. “The problem is we have to make sure we’re good. We have to do better than last year during those twominute periods. There are going to be a lot of close games. Those games we lost last year, we won the year before.”
For the Steelers, the winning edge could simply be creating more turnovers. They were woeful in that department last season with 15 takeaways. Only two teams in the league had fewer.
The strange thing is the Steelers led the league in sacks, and usually pressure on quarterbacks leads to turnovers. Not only did the Steelers not intercept many passes — they recorded eight, their fewest since 1940 — but they didn’t recover fumbles after they stripped quarterbacks and other ball-carriers.
Butler is entering his fifth season as defensive coordinator, but he is getting back to his roots this year by coaching the outside linebackers again because the Steelers did not renew Joey Porter’s contract and did not replace him.