Steelers Now
Former Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker Bud Dupree peeled back the curtain on an eye-opening Mike Tomlin story during a recent appearance on Cam Heyward’s Not Just Football podcast.
It turns out, Dupree could’ve went higher in the 2015 NFL Draft if Tomlin did not prevent him from running another 40-yard dash at his Kentucky pro day. The Steelers picked Dupree at 22nd overall.
“I was about to get ready to run my 40, so I’m warming up and then Coach Tomlin was like, ‘Why’d you run a 40 again?’ I’m like, ‘Why wouldn’t I run a 40? Let’s try to run a 4.3,'” Dupree explained. “And he was like, ‘Nah, don’t run a 40, you already ran, you ran fast already.’ And looking back on it, Coach Tomlin stopped me from getting drafted higher so I could go to the Steelers. I definitely would’ve ran faster than I ran at the Combine and I would’ve been a higher pick.”
Dupree is entering his third season with the Los Angeles Chargers.
The Steelers’ first-round pick in the 2015 NFL Draft, Dupree spent two seasons in Tennessee before joining the Atlanta Falcons in 2023. In 2024, Dupree was open to a return to Pittsburgh, but a deal with the Steelers did not materialize.
“If the opportunity came up, definitely!” Dupree said when asked if he’d be willing to return to Pittsburgh by Ron Lippock of Steelers Takeaways. “It’s a great organization and [Mike] Tomlin – he is who he is. The standard is the standard – for sure I’d go back!”
Dupree shared with Heyward that he has a lot of gratitude for Tomlin.
“Tomlin was a great, great part of my career. Uh, great, you know, a great person that always told me the truth,” Dupree said “It ain’t no hiding like if you it and it’s going to let you understand your role. It’s going to let you understand how you stand with a team, what you got to do to get better.”
Tomlin will serves as a studio analyst for “Football Night in America” on NBC Sports this season. Dupree thinks his former head coach might be done for good with coaching now that’s hes entered the media landscape.
“I don’t even know if I can see him coaching no more now that he gonna go do TV,” Dupree said. “Uh but it definitely surprised me. Uh, but you know, you keep hearing media, you keep hearing things in the media was going on and uh, I feel like he stepped on in his own time.”
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now: Bud Dupree Reveals Eye-Opening Story on Mike Tomlin
