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Why did Reggie Bush Bust?


Ty21

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4 hours ago, THE DUKE said:

9088 yards from scrimmage in 11 seasons (5490 rush, 3598 rec).  826 yfs/season. Only crossed 1000 once in his first 5 years, his rookie season, although he did 998 in year 2.  His best years were ages 26-28 with Miami x2 and Detroit where he got a full workload, his best year being age 28 in Detroit with over 1500 yfs.  10001 all purpose yards, but you can't really include his return stats as a huge positive, an average return man will compile yards doing that.  Looking at his return stats, he had maybe one year where he was anything more than average.  For that #2 overall pick, that is pretty disappointing.  It’d be like saying Saquon will never have the success he had his rookie year again, that'd also be a huge disappointment.

https://www.pro-football-reference.com/players/B/BushRe00.htm

It’s really easy to take his final two seasons where he has a combined 20 rushes and use that to really drop his per season totals and make them look subpar. Through is first 9 years of his career, he averaged just 5 yards shy of 1,000 yfs/year. And that’s with, even in that 9 year time frame, missing nearly two full seasons worth of games.

Was he not the superstar Hall of Fame Lock many people argued he would be? Sure. But he was a good player for a long time. I’d never classify that as a bust.

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5 hours ago, DannyB said:
12 hours ago, Kirill said:

Not enough heart. To be great you can't just be talented. You gotta want it.

The world must be a strange and terrifying place for you

I'm allocated like, 80 footballs a day. I wish I could give you all 80 for this one comment, because it's so on-brand.

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Just want to mention this because it always sticks out in my own memory -- but for his own two feet tripping him up, Reggie would have returned 3 punts for a touchdown in a single game against the Vikings (can't remember which year) which I think would be an NFL record by itself. 

And the Saints still probably lose that game somehow.

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3 hours ago, 1234567 said:

Reggie Bush never had particularly good vision or power. At USC, he relied heavily on having huge holes to run through and being a much better athlete on the field than everyone else. The problem though, is that there's a difference between being an athletic freak by college standards vs in the NFL. Don't get me wrong, he was a great athlete by NFL standards as well, but not enough to get by on that alone like he did in college. 

This is on point - even at USC, the between the T running was from LenDale White, Bush was operating to the outsides, in the passing game and in the return game. In college (specifically the Pac-12, where defense was optional) Bush was able to get a quick seal to the outside and his speed pretty much ruined pursuit angles for LBs - by the time they could adjust, he was already into the secondary. I also think the wider splits in college created running lanes and cutback lanes to exploit.

Once you ratched up the quality of defender and changed the dimensions of the field slightly, you took away that outside edge and rendered him ineffective. He didn't have an LT stiff arm, he didn't have the power of a guy like Faulk, he didn't have the low center of gravity like a Priest Holmes - he was dead to rights, his game didn't evolve until the narrative of "better college player" was pretty much set in stone. 

I wasn't a big fan of Bush coming out of college, and I actually dreaded the thought of Bush as the #1 pick to Houston - so I was relieved when Mario Williams was the pick (overjoyed, actually). The city of Houston quickly deemed Williams as "The Sam Bowie of the NFL" but that had moreso to do with Houston native and UT QB Vince Young not being selected. Nonetheless, the Texans went in the right direction...

 

... that day, at least.

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Sorry but a Bust doesn't play 10 yrs in the NFL. Busts are players like Ryan Leaf, Jamarcus Russell,  Akili Smith, Lawrence Phillips who played 3 yrs or less.

Did he live up to the All World Hype of the "Best RB" ........to come out in a decade plus, No. He was hardly a bust though.

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So...he was a good player, just didn't play up to his billing. Now that that's out of the way....

He busted because Brian Dawkins laid the wood on him. 

No, for real, his skill set and size was an odd fit for the NFL at the time. I think, had he played WR, we may be having a different conversation. I remember watching some of the plays drawn up for him and just shaking my head and yelling "he's not that type of player!" more than a few times. 

Reggie didn't adapt his game as a RB to the NFL and I don't think coaches adapted their playbooks for him as much as necessary to highlight his strengths. 

Injury bug bit a couple times.

The Saints O was so loaded he wasn't featured the way he was at SC. He was hardly used as an every down back from the get-go. Some of that is play book design, some injury, some personnel, some probably taking time to adjust. He showed from 2011-2013 how versatile he was. We'll just never quite know why he wasn't given the reigns earlier to be the featured type player. Judging by those 3 really good seasons, it's not hard to envision him having a much greater stat line if given more opportunities earlier on. Given that he still left with a respectable one, idk that I would even call him a bust, rather that he simply probably never got used as much as he could've been for a variety of reasons. 

Definitely wish we could've seen more from him though.

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8 hours ago, Duluther said:

I’ll bite the bullet and just say what I’ve always felt, though I should do research and provide it before making this unpopular opinion. The two big teams in college football during his tenure were USC and Texas. They had a lot of big draft prospects but also got to the championship. So they should have been good on both an individual level and as a team. ... but the USC-Texas Championship may have been the most overhyped (in the aftermath) championship I’ve watched. Vince Young is certainly the most overhyped college player I’ve ever seen. And Reggie Bush isn’t far behind.

Again, conducting research would help back my claim, but I’m lazy atm. But I do believe that college football was just really down at that period in time, and the worst of the best were perhaps the two biggest media teams, SoCal and Texas. Young was dumb as bricks and sensitive as nylon, but fit the bill as a prototypical “exciting” player. Bush fit the bill as a prototypical “exciting” halfback. So while neither team was great and none of the big prospects were great, the ingredients were there for things to be blown way out of proportion.

I'm curious why you think Vince Young was overrated in college? I know he sucked in the NFL, but in college it was like watching a star high school senior play against a freshman team.

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9 hours ago, Duluther said:

Vince Young is certainly the most overhyped college player I’ve ever seen. And Reggie Bush isn’t far behind.

You do understand that Matt Leinart was the quarterback on the other team in that game you're referencing...right?

You do also understand that Jamarcus Russell was a reality too, don't you? 

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20 hours ago, Kirill said:

Not enough heart. To be great you can't just be talented. You gotta want it.

No.  Heart had nothing to do with it.  He just lacked the physical tools to be an elite RB.

Reggie Bush had skinny legs and didn't have the lower body strength to break tackles.  The most important attribute for a RB is lower body strength.  Reggie was built for like a slot receiver than a RB.  Being faster than everyone works in college cause the holes are so huge.  But in the NFL you need to break tackles.  Reggie was never strong enough to break tackles to be an elite NFL RB. 

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