My response to all you mean-spirited Bush Whackers is frickin’ lighten up, will ya please!
Granted, the former 2005 Heisman Trophy winner has not put up productive numbers this season. Nor has he come close to justifying his $8 million base salary, in part, perhaps, because a broken right fibula kept him on the sideline for eight games.
In fact, it doesn’t seem that long ago when hordes of Saints fans clamored for him to get back in the lineup, that a struggling offense missed his presence, if only as a clever decoy.
In five games, Bush, the second overall pick in the 2006 draft, has 62 touches for 320 yards and one touchdown. Here’s the breakdown:
-- 26 rushes for 80 yards, a 3.1-yard average, with a long of 13 yards & no TDs.
-- 25 catches for 133 yards, a 5.3-yard average, with a long of 20 yards & 1 TD.
-- 10 punt returns for 75 yards, a 7.5-yard average, with a long of 43 yards.
-- 1 kick return for 32 yards (against Baltimore).
You can do the math. It adds up to very little bang for the bucks.
I understand the fans’ lingering frustration. I agree from a business standpoint: Reggie Bush has not justified his contract or fulfilled the lofty and unfair expectations that come with being the second overall pick.
Meanwhile, Wang makes much the same argument (Reggie sucks) but actually manages to call it that. I'm sorry about the extended quote but there's no good way to truncate this. There is, of course, much more to Wang's post which you should go read anyway.
And here is the part of the post where we pause to "hate" the shit out of Reggie Bush. As always, if you can't handle it, you know where the fast forward button is.
He fucking sucks ass. There, I said it. Deal with it. He's not just "disappointing" because he's "not living up to his salary" or "not living up to his draft status" or "not living up to the impossible expectations." The first two are true, of course. The third is patently false, because nobody expects dick from Reggie anymore, other than his fanboys who continue to make their weekly predictions that "This is the week Reggie totally sets it off to the tune of 200 total yards and 3 touchdowns! No, really! This time, I'm sure of it!" while everyone else sighs audibly and rolls their eyes.
But it's not that. It's not relative to anything. Not his draft status, not his salary, not "expectations" unless you mean the expectation that he just not fucking blow. Because all anyone who's not a fanboy expects from him at this point is to just not blow. And yet, he continues to blow. At rushing the ball (80 yards rushing on the season, 3.1 yards per) and at catching the ball (133 receiving yards on the season, 5.3 yards per) and at "playmaking" (longest rush 13 yards, longest reception 20 yards) and at scoring touchdowns (only 1 on the season) and at returning punts (one 43-yard return, 3.55 yards per on the other 9, 2 fumbles.)
He's the fifth (FIFTH!!!) best tailback on the team in yards per carry and rushing yards per game. That's right, both Julius Jones and Ladell Betts(!!!) have been more productive rushers than Reggie Bush on a per-carry and per-game basis. He averages 35.5 scrimmage yards per game, which is eighth(!!!) on the team. It's (barely) above all four tight ends and Julius Jones. Oh, and it's a good bit higher than Heath Evans. High five! Of course, his total cumulative yards from scrimmage is 12th on the team, above only Heath Evans and Tory Humphrey.
Of his 11 touches Sunday, 3 of them went for negative yardage. Another 3 went for 2 yards per. He had 4 rushes for -4 yards, his longest rush of the day was 2 yards, and he produced a total of 32 scrimmage yards at a rate of 2.9 yards per. His 11 touches were about 10 too many. Especially considering that Reggie's 7 receptions went for a whopping 5.14 yards per, and aside from the one 20-yarder, the other 6 went for 2.66 yards per. Meanwhile, Mean Joe Screen was targeted exactly twice, and one of them "never happened" because the Saints accepted an offside penalty on the Ravens.
I suppose I can kinda-sorta see the logic. After all, Reggie had posted season-highs against St. Louis last week with a whopping 14 touches for 61 scrimmage yards. And surely Sean Payton figured that Reggie would be able to out-speed an old Ravens defense on a short week. What he failed to account for is what most of us have known for an excruciatingly long time now: Reggie Bush is probably the most football-stupid player on the roster, and his keen awareness of his own so-called "explosiveness" is every bit as big a hinderance as the so-called "explosiveness" is a help in the first place.
He's the Aaron Brooks of tailbacks. And, much like the Aaron Brooks of quarterbacks, a very large and very loud subset of Saints fans are going to continue to flatly refuse to acknowledge it until Reggie spends a season in Oakland and can no longer find a job in the league.
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