The offseason is inevitably a period of projection and speculation, which makes it the ideal time to ponder the hypotheticals that the Pittsburgh Steelers will face over the course of the next year, whether it is addressing free agency, the draft, performance on the field, or some more ephemeral topic.
That is what I will look to address in our Buy or Sell series. In each installment, I will introduce a topic statement and weigh some of the arguments for either buying it (meaning that you agree with it or expect it to be true) or selling it (meaning you disagree with it or expect it to be false).
The range of topics will be intentionally wide, from the general to the specific, from the immediate to that in the far future. And as we all tend to have an opinion on just about everything, I invite you to share your own each morning on the topic statement of the day.
Topic Statement: Any ‘concern’ about Devin Bush will have vanished by the time players get back on the field.
Explanation: It doesn’t seem so long ago that Devin Bush, the third-year inside linebacker, was drawing negative headlines about some of the things he was putting out on social media, some much less controversial than others. Largely, that conversation has subsided as we head into training camp, though he has also been quiet for the most part.
Buy:
Remember when people were trying to diagnose Devin Bush as a sociopath? That sure was fun. While the Steelers have had their fair share of unforced errors in terms of unnecessary drama, they’ve also had to deal with a series of nothingburgers that were only controversial for the sake of controversy, with no real value behind it.
Bush’s tweets were one such incident, and it was largely a byproduct of the time of the year. Nothing is going on in the NFL in late June and early July. That’s probably why Bush was tweeting more in the first place. He’s hardly even said anything since the 16th, when he made a Friday reference that many people didn’t realize was a joke relating to a movie. As soon as the players are back on the field, this is going to have been long forgotten.
Sell:
This falls on Devin Bush’s shoulders. He can make the story live or die depending on how he expresses himself. He has given multiple indications that he has been spoken to, at least by teammates if not by coaches as well, even referencing ‘fines’.
The very idea that the team (or teammates) would have to think of fining a player for social media behavior in and of itself is a cause for concern, certainly for members of the media whose job it is to find stories, and create them when they’re not there.
Given the background he himself provided, anything Bush says from this point on will be subject to microscopic analysis. That might be as far as the ‘concern’ goes (media members positing empty questions), but it will still be there. The Steelers’ background with players on social media will ensure that.
