When the Pittsburgh Steelers travel to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday to play the Seattle Seahawks, they will see two familiar faces on the opposing sideline.
To the chagrin of many Steelers fans, two of Pittsburgh’s former first-round picks now suit up with Seattle after the team elected not to retain both after their rookie deals were up. CB Artie Burns and LB Devin Bush flamed out during their respective tenures in Pittsburgh before showing promise. Both players were thrust into prominent roles after being selected by the Steelers, but several variables adversely affected their respective development, ultimately resulting in Pittsburgh letting them walk after uninspiring tenures in the Black and Gold.
Burns was drafted by Pittsburgh 25th overall in the first round back in 2016, being labeled as a “panic pick” by some. It was widely known that Pittsburgh had Houston CB William Jackson III as its preferred target in the first round, but the Cincinnati Bengals nabbed him the pick right before Pittsburgh. The Steelers took Burns, who was considered more of a Day Two prospect by many draft evaluators, seemingly reaching at a position of need with Burns, who was a talented yet raw junior coming out of the University of Miami.
Burns made his biggest impact in Pittsburgh in his rookie season, starting nine of 16 games played and picking off three passes while breaking up 13 others. He became a full-time starter in his second season but saw his ball production drop off while his instincts in coverage never seemed to develop. Burns fell out of favor with the coaching staff in 2018, starting only six games, and was demoted again in 2019 while Pittsburgh ran with the likes of Joe Haden, Steven Nelson, Mike Hilton, and Cameron Sutton at cornerback.
Burns played just 66 defensive snaps in his final season with Pittsburgh and left in the offseason to sign with the Chicago Bears. After tearing his ACL in his first season with the team, he re-signed to a one-year deal in 2021. He then signed with the Seahawks last season and has one start in 2023, recording 20 total tackles, two pass deflections while allowing a 64.7% completion percentage, according to Pro Football Reference.
Burns may have been one of GM Kevin Colbert’s biggest misses in the draft and Bush may be worse. The Steelers traded their first-round (20th) and second-round (52nd overall) picks in the 2019 NFL Draft and a third-round pick (83rd overall) in the 2020 NFL Draft to Denver Broncos in exchange for the 1oth overall pick. They used that to select Bush, securing one of the top two linebackers in the draft with Devin White going fifth overall to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Bush made an impact as a rookie in 2019, notching 109 total tackles, nine tackles for loss, a sack, a forced fumble, four fumble recoveries (one for a touchdown), four pass deflections, and two interceptions. He consistently showcased his sideline-to-sideline speed that made him an attractive player coming out of Michigan while generating some splash plays, which he struggled to do at the college level.
Bush got off to another strong start in 2020, starting five games before he unfortunately tore his ACL, causing him to miss the rest of the season. Bush returned in 2021, but looked like a completely different player than the one who took the field the season prior. Playing more timid, he didn’t seem to trust his knee following surgery, showing less physicality taking on blockers and making tackles that made him an impactful player than at the start his career. He also seemed to struggle with aspects off the field, posting strange tweets and videos on Twitter, which would become a bigger deal in the eyes of the media.
Like Burns, Bush saw his role diminish in Pittsburgh his final season, looking like a shell of his former self. He fell out of favor with the coaching staff and ended up getting benched for former UDFA Robert Spillane, who became the team’s three-down linebacker. His poor tackling and effort got highlighted on multiple occasions, leading to his decreased role on defense. Bush became a free agent this past offseason and signed with the Seahawks on March 16. So far, Bush has started two games for Seattle and played in 11 total contests, logging 20% of the defensive snaps. He has logged 13 total tackles and two tackles for loss.
Pittsburgh has faced its fair share of former Steelers the past several weeks, seeing RB James Conner with the Arizona Cardinals and WR JuJu Smith-Schuster with the Patriots. Both those players got the win against their former team, and Bush and Burns will look to do the same thing on Sunday. With the Steelers facing playoff elimination, they are in a must-win scenario against the Seahawks and will have to top two of their failed first-round picks in the process.
