Late in the 2017 campaign, Pittsburgh Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier suffered a devastating spinal injury that knocked him out for the entire 2018 season.

Shazier was one of the Steelers' top defensive players prior to the injury, so, naturally, the team missed him dearly during his absence.

Pittsburgh general manager Kevin Colbert recently acknowledged how much the Steelers missed Shazier, telling the media that, before the injury, Shazier “never came off the field.” He also said that Pittsburgh “didn't do enough” to replace him.

Colbert isn't going to let that continue to happen.

“We’re going to recognize that as we go forward, for sure,” Colbert said, according to Josh Alper of Pro Football Talk. “We have more than one position that we want to continue to look at and upgrade. There may be players that are available to us that we don’t need that are going to upgrade us, who make us that much better that that deficiency may be overcome.”

Many feel that the Steelers may take a linebacker within the first couple of rounds in the NFL Draft this spring, which seems to line up with Colbert's comments.

Shazier, who played his collegiate football at Ohio State University, was originally selected by Pittsburgh in the first round (15th pick overall) of the 2014 NFL Draft.

He went on to develop into one of the best linebackers in the league, making back-to-back Pro Bowls in 2016 and 2017.

The Steelers went 9-6-1 this past season and ended up missing the playoffs for the first time since 2013.