LATROBE, Pa. -- The Steelers have been rotating their inside linebackers at training camp here at Saint Vincent College, mixing Robert Spillane in with Myles Jack and Devin Bush over the first week of practices.
But if the season were to start today?
Well, first-year defensive coordinator Teryl Austin, who moves up from his senior defensive assistant/secondary coach spot this year to replace Keith Butler, says there is a choice.
"Robert’s put himself in the conversation," Austin said Wednesday. "But as we walk into it, we’re thinking Jack and (Bush). Your performance will dictate whether you start or not. I expect it to be a heck of a competition. We’ll see how it unfolds. If we were trotting them out today, it would be Jack and Bush with Spillane in there as a close third. It helps all of those guys to be able to step in there and work and not have any dropoff if somebody does get hurt."
That's going to be crucial for the Steelers to improve their run defense in 2022 after finishing an uncharacteristic last in the league in rushing defense last season.
The Steelers signed Jack to a two-year, $16 million deal when he was released by the Jaguars in a cost-cutting move, and the Steelers released Joe Schobert, their starter next to Bush last season.
But they also declined to pick up the fifth-year option on Bush, a 2019 first-round draft pick. Bush was just not good last season as he returned from a torn ACL suffered in 2020, looking lost on the field at times.
He's looked better in coverage and getting downhill in this camp and seems to have turned the corner in perhaps regaining some of the momentum he took into his second season after making a number of big plays as a rookie.
"Devin’s in the right kind of head space," senior defensive assistant/linebackers coach Brian Flores told me of Bush. "He’s working hard. He’s studying. He’s doing everything he can do to put his best foot forward. That’s all I ask him to do, to try to improve and get better every day. Take those techniques that we’re talking about in the meeting into individual (drills) and group periods. Just take it one day at a time and not think about anything more than getting better today. To me, that’s always been my mindset. String good days together. At the end of the day, you’re going to get the results you’re looking for. That’s really the wisdom I try to instill in him and really the entire linebacker crew and anyone I can do that with."
You can see that coming to fruition on the field.
Tuesday, for example, the Steelers were working on a backs on backers receiving drill, one that clearly favors the offense.
After a couple of early reps, Bush huddled with coaches and began stepping toward the line of scrimmage at the snap of the ball and jamming the running back he was working against to not allow a clean release. It made a difference in his coverage as he attacked rather than waiting to be attacked.
There was too little of that by Bush in 2021, as he looked tentative coming back from the knee injury.
"When you get guys that go down for whatever reason, it’s not easy to get back to tip-top form," Flores said. "I think Devin looks good. He looks healthy. He looks fast. He’s in good condition. He’s worked hard to get to that point."
Whether that means he can hold off Spillane remains to be seen.
"We're all just going out here and working our (butts) off each day," Spillane said. "We have six guys -- Marcus Allen is out right now -- inside linebackers who have that mindset. You can't tell Buddy Johnson he's not trying to win a starting spot, too. We're all out here, working together, trying to help each other grow. Good things happen when that happens."
• With T.J. Watt and Cam Heyward getting the day off with the Steelers not in pads today, the offense looked much more crisp. In fact, the offense actually won Seven Shots, 4-3. And it could have been 5-2 if George Pickens had gotten his feet down on what was a nice pass on a rollout to his left from Mitch Trubisky.
But don't think for a second that Watt and Heyward were held out to make things easier on the offense.
"It’s not for the offense to make their guys feel good about it," Austin said. "It’s for us to make sure we have those guys on Sundays."
• That said, Trubisky looked much more sharp. It was really the first day since we've been here that he's looked markedly better than Rudolph.
He looked especially sharp on the move and in the two-minute drill both he and Rudolph got a chance to run at the end of practice -- Rudolph was back at No. 2, with Kenny Pickett sliding back to No. 3.
Trubisky was 5 of 7 for 53 yards and a touchdown in that two-minute drill, with his only two incompletions going to Cody White. Rudolph was 5 of 9, including a spike to stop the clock, driving the second-team offense to the 8. But his final two passes were broken up.
The Steelers need more of that from Trubisky, but Wednesday had to at least ease some of their concerns regarding his play. He showed he's capable.
• I mentioned to Austin that he's got a lot of options on the back end of his defense, including playing safety Damontae Kazee in the slot.
"It all depends," he said. "That’s the nice thing about having flexibility and having guys that have played a lot of football in this league. You can do some things with them so you’re not so predictable so that when a quarterback comes out and can be, ‘They’re in this or they’re in that.’ We have a little bit more flexibility this year."
I told him I was just spitballing, but the Steelers also could play Kazee at free safety at times and have Minkah Fitzpatrick play the slot, as well.
That elicited a big smile.
"There’s a lot of things," he said with a gleam in his eyes. "You keep spitballing."
• The fact of the matter is, the Steelers have a lot of options on the back end of their defense. With Fitzpatrick, Kazee and Terrell Edmunds at safety and cornerbacks Cam Sutton, Ahkello Witherspoon and Levi Wallace -- who remains out with an illness -- the Steelers have six defensive backs who have been starters.
It's a good overall group.
"The nice thing is when you those pieces, you don’t feel that you’re outmatched, or you don’t feel like you have a bad matchup that’s not in your favor," Austin said. "When we get into game situations, that will be discussed and those guys will be used because we do have some quality NFL players."
With so many quality defensive backs, it wouldn't surprise me to see the Steelers play more dime defense than in previous seasons.
• This was a passing practice. And one-on-ones between the defensive backs and wide receivers were good.
The Steelers do them in the red zone, giving the DBs a little bit of a break. But other than that, it's one-on-one, press coverage with no help.
Pickens looked good in those situation, using his body to screen off defenders. Anthony Miller used his quickness to create separation. Tyler Vaughns continues to make some plays, too, while Miles Boykin was able to simply reach up and snatch a quick out from Trubisky out of the air over Witherspoon.
The key was the quarterbacks were, again, getting the ball out quickly.
• Austin still isn't saying who will officially make the defensive play calls for the Steelers this season (hint, it's going to be him).
"I don’t know, we’ll see," he said coyly.
Why the secret?
"I don’t know if it’s a secret. That’s the real deal," he said. "That is an accurate answer; we’ll see."
• With the NFL now appealing the six-game suspension given to Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson, you can expect Watson will be sitting out longer that six games this season.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell can either choose to hear the appeal himself, or he can appoint someone to hear the appeal. The league is pushing for a full year's suspension.
My guess is that it comes down somewhere in between, with maybe an increase to 10 games.
The Browns deserve what they get on that one.
• Trubisky and Rudolph weren't the only quarterbacks who looked better today. Pickett was more decisive, as well.
Mike Tomlin was getting on the rookie on Tuesday when he was holding the ball too long, telling him the clock in his head has to speed up.
There were still a couple of instances today where Pickett held it too long. But for the most part, he was getting the ball out more quickly. It's a marathon, not a sprint.
• There really wasn't a lot to take out of this practice other than those things. It was more of what we saw last week when the team wasn't in pads.
But they'll be back on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The Steelers are off on Sunday and will then likely be back in pads on Monday and Tuesday before Tomlin scales things back again later in the week before their first preseason game.
If that's being easy on guys or taking things to slow, so be it. The key is having your star players available to go for 17 games during the season.
These guys are in shape. They're ready to go. And beating them up at this time of year serves no purpose.
At the same time, you also have to weigh in the value of getting good looks at younger players.
"It's a means of thinning the lines and providing more opportunities for younger guys," Tomlin said. "We're going to treat everybody fairly, but we're not going to treat everybody the same. More veteran players need less reps to be game ready. Younger players need more."
It's worth noting that Derrek Tuszka replaced Watt at outside linebacker. Isaiahh Loudermilk was in for Heyward.
