Reggie Bush: ROY, Say what?
Reggie Bush is not even the best rookie on his own team, let alone ROY material. Colston, Jones-Drew, Young, Addai, Maroney, Ferguson, Lineart, Mangold, or half a dozen other rookies would win ROY before Reggie Bush. Bush has frankly been a huge disappointment. He entered the league with more hype then any player with the possible exception of Michael Vick. No one has been hyped more and delivered less. He was the second overall pick. Signed a $51 mil. contract with $26 mil. in guarantees, and has more endorsements then LaDainian Tomlinson, and for that money and the #2 pick, the Saints got themselves a slot receiver, and not a particularly spectacular one either.
Bush plays the one position that a rookie can dominate. There is no learning curve needed at running back. Premier players at that position come in and dominate immediately, and if they don't, they bust. In fact, there are only two running backs drafted in the first-round in the last two decades to not average at least 4.0 ypc their rookie seasons and ever make a Pro Bowl. Emmitt Smith averaged 3.9 ypc. Garrison Hearst 3.5 ypc. Neither Smith or Hearst played on good offenses their rookie seasons. Bush on the other hand plays on the second-highest scoring offense in the league and he averages a pathetic 3.2 ypc. He's scored 4 TDs rushing the football in 13 games. 3 came in one game. He's doing better as a receiver, averaging 8.7 ypr, with a paltry 2 TDs, but there are at least 12 running backs averaging as much, or more, sometimes much more, including: Tomlinson, Portis, Westbrook, Buckhalter, Larry Johnson, Fred Taylor, and Ronnie Brown. Guys like Tiki Barber, Stephen Jackson, Kevin Jones and Joseph Addei have averages within .2 of Bush. And three other rookies, DeAngelo Williams, Laurence Maroney, and Maurice Drew have much better averages then Reggie Bush catching the ball. Not to mention rushing averages at least a yard a carry better then Bush. The Saints are winning because of Payton, Brees, Colston, McAllister and Horn, Bush barely registers. You know things were going bad for Bush when three weeks ago his head coach was reduced to complimenting his 50 mil. running back on his blocking. Bush has discoved that he can't make a living like he did in college running sweeps against Oregon State, and catching wheel routes against Stanford.