I was looking on ESPN.com and there is an article in the NFL section still praising Reggie Bush and staying we should stop calling him a bust. Their argument is because of the tandem back system, Bush's numbers are deflated and thus people are judging him wrong. First of all, the Tennessee combo of Smash and Dash did very well last. Derrick Ward and Brandon Jacobs both got over 1000 yards last season. Carolina's Double Trouble of rookie Jonathan Stewart and should-have-been MVP DeAngelo Williams were very successful splitting time. Hell, even AP loses SOME snaps to Chester Taylor and still manages to be awesome. So there's no reason a tandem back system can't be successful for one individual player.
Secondly, by comparing other Saints RBs, I will show that Reggie Bush just flat out sucks. I wrote this is a comment but I feel a post is necessary, REGGIE BUSH SUCKS. When you compare the numbers of Bush to his teammate Pierre Thomas, you can see just how bad Bush is. See, both Thomas and Bush have the same offensive line in front of them. Normally, when you compare RBs, it becomes an unfair comparison because one RB may have a better O-line and thus make a RB look better, But when two backs have the same O-line, that means the difference numbers as ALL running back talent.
Last year. Pierre Thomas was 11th overall in DYAR and 4th overall in DVOA. This means that overall, Thomas was the 11th best overall back, and PER PLAY, he was the fourth best. So if you had to run one play, there was only three NFL backs you would prefer to have over Thomas. Then compare him to Reggie Bush. Bush was 41st in both DVOA and DYAR, 9th to last of all RBs who had significant amount of carries. Here are some backs last year that were better than Reggie Bush: Edge, Run DMC, Earnest Graham, Maurice Morris, Warrick Dunn, and Mewelde Moore.
And this trend is not just last year but throughout both players careers. Thomas has a better YPC, TD/G, and fumble/G in his career than Bush. Bush has never had more than 6 rushing TDs in a single season. Thomas had 9 last year. Thomas has 4 less receiving TDs than Bush, but also 165 less receptions. And although Thomas has been thrown to much much less and caught much much less passes than Bush, his yards per catch in his career is better. Thomas had about 20 less receptions last year and still had a better yards per catch.
However, I will give Bush some credit, he is a better kick returner than Thomas.
Pierre Thomas was undrafted free agent from Illinois that was decent at best. Reggie Bush was one of the greatest college football RBs ever, if not college football players ever, and was the #2 pick in the draft. Yet for some reason, in essentially every facet of the game, Pierre Thomas has shown to be a better running back than Reggie Bush. And both are on the same team with essentially the same players throwing and blocking for them. There is absolutely no excuse for Bush's actions because essentially all other factors besides talent have been taken out of the equation. It's really hard to make the argument that straight up, Thomas has more ability and talent than Bush because there is no indicator to prove such a thing. Maybe the way Thomas played in college was more suited for the pro game, but Reggie's back up at USC, fatboy LenDale White, has also had proven success in the NFL.
So, I believe the only rational conclusion to come to, is that: Reggie Bush sucks he was way too over-hyped there are obvious flaws in the way NFL scouts draft if Bush went #2 overall the Houston Texans are now geniuses for passing over Bush and Pierre Thomas should start for the New Orleans Saints.
Oh, did I mention that Reggie Bush sucks?
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