September 21, 2006
Reggie Bust
by Dave Sabo
HoustonProFootball.com
Could the Saints have blown the #2 overall pick any worse?
Forget the “Jordan-Bowie-Portland-’84 NBA Draft” analogies. Every thinking person should be sick of hearing about them by now, and Mario Williams and Vince Young don’t deserve to be dragged into this debacle. Besides, comparing the Saints’ decision to draft Reggie Bush to the Blazers’ decision to draft Sam Bowie is an insult to the Blazers. Portland already had future Hall of Famer, Clyde Drexler, a scorer at guard, and needed a big man. Bowie fit the bill. The Saints already had a prolific back in Deuce McAllister and needed… just about everything else.
For whatever reason (and I’d bet it had something to do with a bunch of college highlight Youtube clips), the Saints decided Bush was their man. Now that there’s a large enough sample (in an environment where Mario Williams’ career was written off the night before he was even DRAFTED, two games is an absolute EON), it’s apparent what a horrible blunder that decision was.
Reggie Bush is, simply, a mediocre NFL runner as evidenced by his alarmingly average production. Twenty-one carries for 72 yards and no touchdowns. His 3.4 yards per carry ranks 27th in the league. How average is that? Below is the list of Texans running backs that have been as, if not more, productive.
Wali Lundy 17 carries, 57 yards, no TD’s, 3.4 YPC
Ron Dayne 11 carries, 37 yards, no TD’s, 3.4 YPC
Samkon Gado 3 carries, 36 yards, no TD’s, 12.0 YPC
Gado basically landed at Intercontinental, caught a cab to Reliant, suited up and out-produced the $50 million man.
Bush isn’t even the best rusher on his own team. McAllister (34 carries, 137 yards, 2 TD’s, 4.0 YPC), as he’s been since ’02, is still the main man in New Orleans. Shouldn’t the guy who was the #2 overall pick be the go-to guy? Maybe Pete Carroll knew something after all. I might owe that guy an apology.
What about Domanick Davis? I’ve been referring to Bush as the poor man’s DD, but as was pointed out in Post Patterns by painekiller, he’s actually the profligately spending man’s Domanick Davis. There’s nothing poor about his contract. And, it appears I’ve been selling poor Dom short.
For his career, DD’s averaging 4.1 yards per carry and before the Bushbots start blustering about Reggie’s gifts as a receiver, Dom’s averaging 8.3 yards a reception to Reggie’s 8 even. Now, I’m a big fan of Domanick, but would ANYbody have picked him #2 overall in last year’s draft?
Look at some other backs on the board at #2.
Laurence Maroney 33 carries, 151 yards, no TD’s, 4.6 YPC
Joseph Addai 23 carries, 108 yards, 1 TD, 4.7 YPC
Wali Lundy 17 carries, 57 yards, no TD’s, 3.4 YPC
All three are splitting carries just like Bush, although both Maroney and Addai are commanding expanded roles while Lundy’s been benched.
Now, I can hear the chortles of disbelief and it’s rumored that the wind currents created by the Bush spin are responsible for Hurricane Helene currently menacing the Bahamas, but allow me to address some of the excuses being made for Reggie.
He’s splitting carries!
As stated above, so are Addai and Maroney, and they’re lapping Reggie. Shoot, Lundy’s put up similar rushing numbers and has lost his job. Guess he could use more Youtube clips.
More importantly, Bush has been hyped as the consensus #1, the second coming of Sayers, Sanders, etc., the Greatest Ever. If so, why is he splitting carries? You draft a running back with the #2 pick, he’s supposed to be the man; end of story. If he’s not an every down back, he shouldn’t be the consensus anything.
It’s only two games!
Only? That’s an infinitely longer honeymoon that Mario Williams has been given. HIS career is, apparently, over. Reggie wasn’t drafted as a project. He’s supposed to produce NOW.
Did you see the juke on that punt return?!
That return for six yards? Yeah, saw that. Six yards. Somebody call Canton. No points for juking, folks. A yard is a yard whether it was gained by de-cleating a defender or de-jocking him.
I hate to throw him under the bus because he was a hell of a return man, but does anybody remember Billy “White Shoes” Johnson? While he’d juke and fake his way to daylight every now and again, I remember a lot of returns where, after juking his way past 10 defenders, he’d get drilled for a loss by the 11th.
Look at his receiving numbers!
With regards to running backs, receiving yards are the A-1 sauce; rushing yards are the steak. If I’m drafting a running back #1 over all, six carries for 5 yards don’t feed the bulldog.
Hall of Fame Running Back: 121 receptions, 806 yards, 0 TD’s
Know whose career receiving numbers those are? Earl Campbell’s. There’s a reason they’re not called “receiving” backs. I don’t know about y’all, but I’m taking Earl over Reggie every day and 25 times a game on Sunday.
If you can find a guy with good hands out of the backfield, great. But he better be able to tote the rock, especially late with a lead.
Speaking of Earl, I’ll cut the Bushbots a break. Since he’s playing on Monday night, I’m willing to clean his slate and give Reggie the opportunity to make a statement on Monday Night Football the way Earl did nearly thirty years ago. The Oilers-Dolphins game is the standard. Earl rushed 28 times for 199 yards and 4 touchdowns. I expect nothing less from Reggie Bush.
Dave Sabo is thinking about taking out that new chick from Logistics. If things go right he might be showing her his O-face. You know: Oh! Oh!