Steelers Release Just-Signed Outside Linebacker
The Pittsburgh Steelers have waived outside linebacker Thomas Rush, the team announced on Wednesday, after adding one in the 2025 NFL Draft.
The Steelers had just signed Rush in January to a future contract after he spent the past two seasons on the practice squad of the Tennessee Titans. The Steelers used a fourth-round pick on Ohio State outside linebacker Jack Sawyer on the third day of the draft on Saturday.
Sawyer will join Nick Herbig, Jeremiah Moon, Eku Leota and Julius Welschof as depth options behind starters T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith on the Steelers’ 90-man offseason roster.
A 6-foot-3, 251-pound edge rusher, Rush did not play a game in either of his first two seasons after going undrafted out of Minnesota. He did play in six preseason games over the last two seasons with the Titans, recording one tackle in 2024 and four tackles and one for a loss in 2023.
In pre-draft testing coming out of Minnesota in 2023, Rush posted a 4.57-second 40-yard dash, an impressive 10-foot-3 broad jump, 35.5-inch vertical and an elite 4.22-second shuttle run. His relative athletic score was a 9.07 out of a possible 10, with his closest comparable player listed as Denver Broncos All-Pro Nik Bonnito.
But that athleticism has never turned into elite production. In five seasons with the Golden Gophers, Rush’s highest sack total was 5.5 in his redshirt junior season in 2021. His next-highest was 1.5 as a redshirt senior in 2022.
Because Rush has less than four years of accrued NFL service time, he will go through waivers on Thursday.
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