Player Report: Reggie Bush

Name: Reggie Bush

College: Southern California

Position: HB/PR

Team: New Orleans Saints

Height: 5’11

Weight: 203

Age: 21

Experience: R

Strengths: Outstanding quickness. Can cut on a dime and make the best of them miss. Has great straight line speed and can outrun most NFL defenders. Very dangerous in open space. Is very creative with the ball in open space trying to make the big play. Versatile. Has the ability to score from any place on the field. Dynamic punt returner with good moves in the open field. Catches the ball was well as any other Halfback, either lining up as a receiver or on screen passes out of the backfield. Makes opposing defenses find out where he lines up every play. High character athlete.

Weaknesses: Pretty small. Faces questions about his durability because of both his size and his workload at USC. Split carries in college. May not have the strength to run between the tackles. Tries to do too much at times. Wants to score on every play. Doesn’t always follow his blockers and stick to the play design. Isn’t always careful with the ball. Sometimes leaves it unprotected while carrying, and can make poor decisions trying to score and make the big play.

There’s not a football fan on the planet who doesn’t know who Reggie Bush is and for good reason. The dynamic athlete contributed on two national championship winning teams, and won the Heisman his junior year as he ran, caught, juked and spun his way past the competition into the National Championship game again before losing to Texas in the final minutes.

With a combination of great production, being part of a winner, great workout numbers and dozens of highlight reel plays, Reggie Bush was being hailed as the next great one. Some compared him to Bears’ legend Gale Sayers. Some said he would immediately be a top five Halfback in the NFL, before even taking a snap. So with all of this excellence and hype, it’s pretty safe to assume he would be drafted first overall, right?

The Houston Texans added even more hype to the Bush machine by not selecting him first. Now he might play with something to prove after going to the Saints with the second pick (Mario Williams being the first.) He might be out to show that he should’ve been number one. Either way, Reggie quickly embraced the community. An area that was destroyed by natural disaster, Bush brought some life back into the city, both financially and by name recognition. There was a reason to cheer again, and Bush was ready to lead the Saints and the New Orleans community.

After a brief training camp holdout, Bush put the pads on and hit the field. It became clear that new Head Coach Sean Payton had a plan for his offense to utilize Bush and all the other weapons he had available to him. In the first preseason game against the Titans, Bush took the handoff on a running play designed to go to the left, reversed fields and took the play down the right sideline for a huge gain, it made people wonder. Is he for real? Is he this much more athletic than everyone else? It silenced the critics: “Maybe he can do this in the NFL…”

Come the regular season, Payton had even more wrinkles in the playbook to get defenses to pay attention to Bush: Constant play action fakes going to him, fake end-arounds, the whole nine yards. If the ball wasn’t in Reggie’s hands, he made sure the defense worried it was. The problem was when Bush did have the ball, the results weren’t there. He led the league in catches, but they weren’t getting the team anywhere. Teams were beginning to catch on to the plan, and beginning to contain the swings and dump off passes designed to get Bush in space. He wasn’t scoring touchdowns, but the offense was doing great, despite the early struggles.

The running was worse. Splitting carries with Pro Bowler Deuce McAllister, Bush was still getting a fair chance to carry the football. However, he ran undisciplined. He wanted to do everything himself. He wasn’t following his blockers, he was dancing in the backfield too much trying to get to the outside, and simply wasn’t getting north and south. It’s impossible to be a productive runner without reading blocks and hitting the hole hard. Reggie Bush hit minor crossroads in his early career. He could either continue to do what he was doing, try to get by with his outstanding athletic ability and not play a team game, or he could adjust. He could adjust his style to the faster NFL game and become an impact player. With a little help from his coaches, he is adjusting, and he’s about to take the proverbial leap.

In recent weeks, Reggie Bush is coming closer and closer to looking like the player everyone thought he would be. He’s finally finding a groove and his place in the offense. Instead of trying to make guys miss in the backfield, he would run the play the way it’s supposed to be run, and then use his great quickness to make guys miss at the second level. He’s running harder, and instead of trying to do everything himself like the old Reggie Bush, he’s letting the other great players on his offense help him, and the results could be a nightmare for defenses.

It’s easy to dislike Bush because he’s a very successful, rich athlete with a lot of hype surrounding him, but some people need to realize something. We could be watching a future great. He started out slow and people were ready to jump all over him, but improvement has been clear and noticeable in the past few weeks. So after his big day against the 49ers, instead of dismissing it because of the opponent, it’s time everyone sits back, and enjoy the fact that we can see something special.

NFL Picks

Cleveland (+7.5) over Pittsburgh- Crennel has his team playing tough, and Pittsburgh is up and down.