Things appear to be going well for Pittsburgh Steelers rookie linebacker Bud Dupree as the team starts to wind down their offseason OTA practices. In fact, according to a Tuesday report by Jeremy Fowler of ESPN.com, the Steelers first-round draft pick out of Kentucky is already getting reps with the first-team defense in addition to his second-team reps.
A few of Dupree’s teammates said recently that the rookie appears to be a fast learner and that’s great news as they’ll surely need the youngster to play some at some point during the season.
Dupree is likely getting first-team snaps during the team’s final week of OTA practices to show off what he’s learned so far against better competition and one would think and hope that will continue into next week when the mandatory minicamp gets underway.
While he’s still a long shot to beat out Arthur Moats for the starting left outside linebacker spot come the start of the regular-season, Dupree appears to be on course to push for that job later on in the year. He played on his feet quite a bit during his final two seasons at Kentucky and the hope is that will help ease his learning curve at the NFL level.
We’ll be getting a better sense as to where Dupree actually is at in his development come the start of training camp and being as the Steelers play five preseason games this year, he ought to get quite a bit of playing time in those games as long as he’s healthy.
