<blink>CAUTION: WORDS!!!!!</blink>
I'm just going to lay it out there:
I like Reggie Bush, but in 2006 I didn't feel he was a first-round grade. I had questions about him, ranging from his build to the types of plays on which he made his highlights. I'd watch those '04-'05 USC features, and I'd see two distinct things: 1) holes big enough and sustained enough for Reggie to go get his car and drive through and 2) players that looked like they were running in slow motion - on
both teams. And USC was touted as a team with great team speed. Yet, somehow I knew that such superior speed would be negated at the NFL level. With the exception of open-field breakaways, players almost
never use their top speed.
Which brings me to my first problem - Reggie as a rusher seems to always want to go top speed, which usually ends with him outrunning play development and right into a defender that either set the edge or read the play. When a guy wants to turn a play designed for 4-8 yards into a play of 40-80 yards, he presses and winds up losing even the original intent of the play. If he takes what's there, good things just might come later (blown defensive assignment, make a good move, etc.) - if he tries to make something be there that isn't, he might run right into a defender's assignment (which could otherwise be wrong).
Let the record show that he doesn't have this problem on pass plays, be it in route-running or protection. He's usually right where he belongs in both instances. I can't remember the last time I saw him blatantly fail to pick up a pass rush, and Brees seems to find him easily on the field when he needs to. I don't have a complaint about him receiving the ball.
Reggie the punt returner is more maddeningly inconsistent. There are times when he simply leaves yards on the field due to indecision - this happened Sunday. He fielded a punt, the blockers cleared the gunner, and he responded to the open field by stepping on the same two spots on the field before getting shoestring tackled by the gunner that got knocked down. There are also returns like the Washington game last year where one guy misses and instincts take over. I'd like to see more of that variety.
Though I'm considered a critic, there are stances I simply won't take: I won't vouch for trading him, I won't vouch for permanently benching him, I won't strongly vouch for making him more of a WR and less of an RB. However, I won't go to great lengths to make sub-standard performances for a player of his position -- running back -- justifiable by any comparison. I can live with 15 carries for 67 yards, 13 carries for 64 yards, 18 runs for 73 yards, etc. I can't live with 14 carries for 27 yards, 15 carries for 34 yards, 6 carries for 5 yards (all six are actual career performances). I will cheer on the former three performances and decry the latter three performances. Seven carries for 14 yards falls in the second category, and category #2 is currently more populous than category #1. We can't undo what's already done but we can hope that the numbers even out a little more.
To be a fair critic of myself, I do discredit his receiving and returning numbers at times (including now). I consider those things sub-primary and using them to justify poor rushing perfomances isn't adequate for me. I respect and will never dispute his receiving skills, and his return skills (including knowing when to let a punt bounce, when to FC, etc.) are steadily improving as he becomes more of a full-time punt returner. In whole, he's performing like the fringe first-day talent I thought he'd be -- only he's getting paid extremely handsomely in the process. Of the players he most reasonably compares to now, only Metcalf was a first-round pick. Of his peers, there aren't any that I can recall.
In the end, though, he's a Saint. We all want all of these guys to do well. And while the critics may be a little favorable of the numbers, it's certainly better than the verbal (and sometimes physical) threats made by those who unabashedly support Reggie. Calling someone a hater or worse, threatening to harm them at a game is not the right response to make to ANY Saints-related discussion. Let's at least try to keep that much focus.