Tomlin recalls first meeting with first-round pick Bush
PITTSBURGH — It will be a year ago next month when Devin Bush walked onto the field for some routine work at the University of Michigan.
Not practice. Real work. Bush was helping out at a camp for high school kids and assumed it would be just another day.
“I ran into him, Coach Tomlin,” Bush recalled. “He had his son there. I was working at the camp and just kind of ran into him, put a name to a face, shook hands. That was that.”
Any impression?
“Nah,” Bush said. “I was just out there supporting his son.”
Dino Tomlin ended up committing to Maryland, but Mike Tomlin ended up drafting Bush with his next pick as head coach of the Steelers.
“I definitely went there to eyeball him,” said Tomlin. “I had seen him on tape, knew he was good, but I knew he was short so I wanted to meet him and size him up myself.”
Obviously, Bush made more of an impression on Tomlin than Tomlin made on him. Blue-chippers meet so many coaches throughout their journey, whereas few coaches come looking to put the jersey of their first championship captain on a player at a June camp.
* Tomlin uttered the name Derrick Brooks after making Lawrence Timmons his first Steelers draft pick back in 2007. Brooks, of course, was the Defensive Player of the Year and future Hall of Fame linebacker for the world champion Tampa Bay Bucs. He was the key piece of a defense that Tomlin assisted as the secondary coach, and Tomlin made no secret of his desire to find another such piece when he drafted Timmons. And then Ryan Shazier. And perhaps now with Bush, who’ll wear the same number — 55.
“I know Joey Porter wore it, a great linebacker here,” Bush said. “I always wanted to wear number 10 again, so you add five and five together, you get 10.”
Bush was asked if there was anyone else he admired with that number.
“Of course,” Bush said. “Derrick Brooks was probably the biggest person I looked up to wearing 55. I look forward to carrying on the legacy.”
Tomlin didn’t even have to say it this time.
* Bush was given his playbook Friday morning, the day of his first practice at rookie minicamp, and was barking out signals as if he had already digested it.
“Whether I was right or wrong, just being vocal and trusting what I see,” was how Bush explained his understanding.
But he added that the terminology remains a foreign language to him.
“You’ve just got to jump in your playbook and be confident,” he said.
* He’s quick, stout, has great hands, obviously a leader in the making, loses ground a bit out of breaks, but his speed coming downhill and to the sidelines is where his coverage assets lie.
And, of course, Bush is small — like much of this rookie class with the Steelers.
“That’s the way the game is going,” said Tomlin, who used Terrell Edmunds as an example. “With that 220-pound body, he’d have been a linebacker at Tech if he was there today. He just missed the new wave.”
* There had been buzz coming from the Steelers prior to the draft that Edmunds — last year’s first-round pick and the No. 5 player in NFL snaps last season — would be moved down from his strong safety spot to play linebacker in sub-packages. But the Steelers signed $backer (the NFL’s name for 3-down safety/linebacker hybrids) Mark Barron in free agency and then drafted Bush.
Does that rule Edmunds out as a sub-package linebacker?
“He’ll be closer to the action,” Tomlin said. “I’ll just say that because sometimes we get too caught up in the semantics of positions. But he’ll be closer to the action. It’s the game right now.”
* Edmunds was among a group of 10-12 young veterans who came out of the weight room Friday to watch the rookies. The group’s ringleader was Shazier, who told stories and kept everyone loose while offering encouragement to the newcomers.
For reporters from national outlets, this may have been an unexpected scene, considering the Steelers’ reputation — albeit inaccurate — for having a sour locker room.
Bush, of course, was asked about playing in front of Shazier.
“Yeah, I saw him,” Bush said. And then he delivered the line he’s used so often since being drafted as the so-called replacement for Shazier: “I’m just playing football. I’m not trying to be somebody I’m not and try to go over and beyond. I’m trying to learn my playbook and do what I can do.”
* Shazier’s focus wasn’t solely — or even primarily — on Bush. Shazier’s cousin, Nehari Crawford, is in camp as a rookie invitee. Crawford is a 5-11, 175-pound wide receiver/return specialist from Duquesne who was described yesterday as “one of the best players in I-AA.”
Crawford led the NEC with 71 receptions and 1,048 receiving yards last season and made the all-conference first team for the second consecutive year. He grew up in Fort Pierce, Fla, about 100 miles north of Shazier’s hometown of Lauderdale Lakes, Fla. Crawford became Duquesne’s all-time leader in receiving yards (2,719) and receptions (190) and is wearing No. 81 at rookie camp.
* Crawford was timed at 4.46 at a freezing-cold pro day. It was faster than No. 18’s pro day 40 of 4.53. No. 18 is the Steelers’ second draft pick, Diontae Johnson, the 5-10, 181-pound receiver/return specialist out of Toledo.
Johnson participated in individual drills yesterday but not the team scrimmages. At the end of practice he walked off the field alongside trainer John Norwig, but didn’t seem to be injured.
“I’m good,” Johnson said.
When asked about missing the reps, he said, “That’s something you have to ask Coach Tomlin about. I’m fine.”
* Rookie camps are disjointed and difficult to follow, with all of the new numbers and faces, so let’s end this first notebook on a historical note.
Back in the 2004 draft, the Steelers were on the clock with the 11th pick and were debating between QB Ben Roethlisberger, OG Shawn Andrews and an unidentified third prospect. Owner Dan Rooney, of course, is credited with swinging the debate toward Roethlisberger, but what did Rooney say exactly?
Nothing. He put his right hand up near his right ear and flicked his wrist three times to mimic the act of throwing an imaginary ball. So, the Steelers took Roethlisberger.