Devin Bush of the Seahawks is “building” on his increasing playing time.
RENTON, Wash. – With two weeks left in the regular season and his former team coming to town, now is the perfect time for Seattle Seahawks linebacker Devin Bush Jr. to make his presence known.
Due to Jordyn Brooks’ ankle injury that will likely keep him out this week, Bush is in line for extended playing time and a possible start Sunday when the Seahawks take on Pittsburgh, the team that selected him out of the University of Michigan with the 10th overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft.
Bush had a team-high 109 tackles in a standout rookie season with the Steelers and finished third in NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year voting. But after tearing his ACL in Week 6 of his second season, Bush never came close to repeating those rookie-year numbers.
After the team declined his fifth-year option before 2022, and then benched him toward the end of the season, Bush left the Steelers to sign a one-year, $3.5 million free-agent deal with the Seahawks.
Brooks’ ankle still is “pretty sore,” according to head coach Pete Carroll, making Bush the next man up at linebacker and an important piece of Seattle’s defense as it tries to lock down a spot in the NFC playoffs with a pair of wins in the final two weeks.
While Bush might not be getting as much playing time as envisioned when he signed with Seattle this past March, Carroll has been impressed with Bush’s on-field versatility and the way he has kept his spirits high, even as Brooks and Bobby Wagner have received the vast majority of the snaps this season at inside linebacker.
“He’s got a great chance to play a lot this weekend, and I know he’ll be fired up for that,” Carroll said. “There’s always something to that. Last week, (Mario Edwards, Jr.) had his chance to get back against his old club. There’s something to that that just kind of juices guys up, and I totally respect that. And I like honoring that. It’s meaningful.”
The Seahawks signed Bush in the spring to address what appeared to be a razor-thin linebacking corps. Cody Barton, a 2022 starter, had just departed for a deal with the Washington Commanders, Brooks was about two months removed from surgery to fix a torn ACL, and Wagner had not yet re-signed with Seattle after being released by the Los Angeles Rams.
But with Wagner, Brooks and Boye Mafe all playing at a high level this season, Bush hasn’t seen much of the field. He has been inactive for four games, took just one defensive snap when Seattle hosted Cleveland and played exclusively on special teams in five other contests.
As someone who has spent most of his career as a starter, his time spent as a backup to Wagner and Brooks has given Bush a different perspective.
“It gave me a chance to really soak the game in and really learn the game more,” Bush said. “Obviously, I was in a different role, so I was watching those guys more and just watching the game. Just their perspective, just watching the game, you know. Just being able to take mental reps and take physical reps at the same time. I have to prepare myself as a starter week after week, that definitely helped a lot just in my preparation, just being consistent with that.”
Bush had the best game of his Seahawks tenure last week after Brooks departed in the first quarter, with six tackles and one tackle for loss against the Titans while taking the field for 61% of the team’s defensive snaps.
Bush’s previous high snap count came in Week 13 against Dallas, when he played 58 snaps, or 65% of the team’s total.
“That obviously now gives me more of a standard, something to base my play off of,” Bush said. “If it’s six tackles last week, now it’s seven, now let’s get eight. I think it’s just a building thing. We’ve still got a bunch of football left to be played, and like I say, you just take it one rep at a time and one opportunity at a time, and just put your best foot forward.”
On the occasions when he has played, Bush has impressed his teammates with his attention to detail and thorough preparations.
“He hasn’t really got a lot of opportunities, but you saw what he can do on both defense and special teams in the preseason,” Wagner said. “You see it at practice, his ability to be able to fill in when Jordyn went out shows you the preparation that he does, regardless of whether or not he’s getting an opportunity.”
Wagner knows the special feeling that comes with going up against an old team. He experienced it last year when he played the Seahawks twice as a member of the Rams.
But Wagner also cautioned that players can’t let that storyline get in the way of the other things they need to do to get ready.
“Obviously, when you play your old team, you definitely want to play well, but you don’t want to let it overshadow preparation and make you lose focus on little things. So it’s a balance,” Wagner said. “You’ve got to balance the emotions of playing your former team, but also locking in and knowing you know what you have to do and what you have to get done, and I feel like he’ll be good.”
In Seattle’s two-game playoff chase, Bush brushed down the significance of facing the franchise that let him depart, calling the Steelers “another team that’s in the way.” Despite his attempts to ignore the game’s emotional undertones and concentrate on the football aspect, Bush acknowledges that, depending on how the Seahawks play, he may have animosity toward his old employer.
“Only if they defeat us,” declared Bush. I think it’s the only way I can respond to that.
