Devin Bush is the Steelers' biggest X-Factor

The Steelers need him to be good.

• Devin Bush had a miserable 2021 season, and given how much the Steelers have invested in him he has to be better this season.

• There are a lot of reasons to believe he can be.

• Whether or not he is remains to be seen.

At this point I really could not care less about the quarterback battle at Steelers training camp.

We will not know a damn thing about Kenny Pickett, Mitchell Trubisky, or Mason Rudolph in this offense until they actually start playing in preseason games. Even then I feel like we probably already know how it is going to play out.

Trubisky or Rudolph will start the season, they will be asked to simply not screw shit up, and at some point when they do screw shit up Pickett will get his chance around mid-season.

Either way, the offense is going to be about how far Najee Harris and Pat Friermuth can methodically move them down the field in small chunks with the occasional big play from Diontae Johnson and George Pickens hopefully sprinkled in. It will probably not be pretty, but hopefully it can be somewhat effective.

The make-or-break aspect of this team is going to rest with the league’s highest-paid defense. It not only has to be good, it has to be dominant. I am not going to say it has to be THE BEST defense in the league, but it better be in the top-five and at least in the discussion as the best defense in the league.

Keeping T.J. Watt, Minkah Fitzpatrick, and Cam Heyward healthy will be of significant importance. New additions Myles Jack, Levi Wallace, and Larry Ogunjobi need to be impact players. Ahkello Whitherspoon’s late-season strong play from a year ago needs to be repeated.

But the most important variable might be middle linebacker Devin Bush being the Devin Bush that the Steelers picked in the 2019 NFL draft.