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 on the night of 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 the pass.
“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. He’s going to have to do that, as well as his coaches.”
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 in four consecutive seasons. Without Shazier last season, 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 Chargers, Raiders and Saints. If the Steelers found a way to close out any of those games, they would have made the playoffs. Instead, they finished 9-6-1, and the Ravens overtook them for first place 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. “If you look at what’s happened the last couple of years in football, the games are coming down to the final two minutes. It seems like the league is concerned about how many four-point games we have, which is good because it keeps everyone tuned in. No one is turning the channel. That’s fine.
“The problem is we have to make sure we’re good. I think we can do better than last year. We have to do better than last year during those two-minute periods. There are going to be a lot of close games. Those games we lost last year, we won the year before. We have to get the winning edge.”
For the Steelers, the winning edge could simply be creating more turnovers. They were woefully bad in that department last season with just 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 just 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 taking on the task of coaching the outside linebackers again. The Steelers did not renew the contract of Joey Porter after last season and did not replace him. Butler, who coached Steelers linebackers from 2003-14, is now tasked with trying to get the most out of Bud Dupree, the 2015 first-round pick who is getting paid $9.2 million in the final year of his rookie contract.
Dupree has 20 career sacks and has never had more than 6½ in any season. T.J. Watt, the 2017 first-round pick, has 20 sacks in his first two NFL seasons.
Colbert and head coach Mike Tomlin defended Dupree earlier this offseason and believe there is more potential to tap. Butler is in lock-step with them. There has been plenty of criticism of Dupree since the Steelers decided to pick up his $9.2 million option, but you won’t hear much inside the Steelers facility.
“He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do,” Butler said. “Bud is all for us winning. He’s not all for Bud. He’s all for the team. That’s what I like about him.”
As for Dupree’s production, or lack of it, Butler said: “The last couple of years, we’ve led the league in sacks. If Bud’s not getting them, someone is getting them. … As long as someone is getting them, I’m not worried about his production. I’m worried about how he plays within the framework of the defense. If he does that, then I’m fine with it.”
Ray Fittipaldo: rfittipaldo@post-gazette.com and Twitter @rayfitt1.
First Published: June 12, 2019, 5:40 p.m.