Be Patient With Reggie (stat comparison) (1 Viewer)

superchuck500

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I know that there is a growing frustration with Reggie's rushing. Yes, he won the heisman, and signed a $50 million contract, but all of that is in the past. Right now, what matters is his development as a Saint- and that development is only 8 games old.

Here are some stats that may calm you, if you are approaching a crisis with your belief in Reggie as a rusher.

Through 8 games, Reggie Bush has 207 yards rushing. If you project his season total of 414 yards, it compares with the first TWO season averages of both Tiki Barber and Brian Westbrook (similarly sized backs).

In Tiki Barber's first two seasons, he averaged 338.5 rushing yards per year, essentially playing a full season. In Brian Westbrook's first two seasons, he averaged 403 rushing yards per year.

Yes, Reggie's total will come with more rushes than Westbrook and Barber had in their first two years, but not many more. My point is that sometimes it takes a full season or even two full seasons for a talented back to emerge in the NFL.

In the meantime, while Reggie's rushing skills need work, he continues to pull linebackers and safeties away from the middle when he lines up as a receiver- b/c any def. coordinator knows that if he catches a ball in space- he's gone. So while we wait for his rushing skills to develop, we still have a player that contributes mightily to success of the offense. Sounds like a good deal to me.

Let's just be patient on his rushing- hopefully he will develop. He seems to have the desire and the work ethic to come around, and with proper coaching, it may be sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed.
 
Tiki Barber is actually a fairly good comparison. Tiki was not a good running back his first 4 or so years in the NFL (by his own admission).

Ideally, Bush will develop into a style similiar to Tiki's (both are fairly similiar).

Bush isn't the next Gale Sayers (because of how the NFL has involved there is no longer such a thing as "the next Gale Sayers", it's like saying "the next YA Tittle"), he's the next Tiki Barber (hopefully).
 
I still say Marshall Faulk... Once the running game clicks for him at this level, he'll be the man just like Marshall was.
 
I still say Marshall Faulk... Once the running game clicks for him at this level, he'll be the man just like Marshall was.

I like the Faulk comparison too to illustrate Reggie's upside... but Faulk had immediate success (1282 rushing yards his rookie year), so for the purposes of saying that Reggie's slow start rushing shouldn't be too big of a worry, the Faulk comparison doesn't really work.
 
Another important point was made somewhere during the game or post game shows yesterday, and it was that something like 35 of Reggie's receptions have been on 3rd down. I don't remember the exact #, but I know that Brees goes to him a lot for the first down pick up.

I'd like to get some hard info on this to back it up, but even if its a little off, that's a huge contribution that can't be denied.

:tpenny:
 
great post, thanks for the comparison
 
I've never seen a rookie that is the 1# target for every defense in the league that the Saints played against. LOL the Ravens and Bucs both would rather let Brees, Colston, Henderson and Horn score on them then Reggie. No matter what with out Bush the Saints would not be 6-2.
 
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I agree, he's struggling at being a pure RB right now, but he's contributing as a receiver and it is amazing to watch him pull the defense with him when he goes in motion or they fake to him. Teams simply can't let him catch the ball in space.

But as far as getting the ball in the backfield, I also agree he needs to quit dancing, start slashing and look for the backside hole!
 
Another important point was made somewhere during the game or post game shows yesterday, and it was that something like 35 of Reggie's receptions have been on 3rd down. I don't remember the exact #, but I know that Brees goes to him a lot for the first down pick up.

I'd like to get some hard info on this to back it up, but even if its a little off, that's a huge contribution that can't be denied.

:tpenny:

Reggie has 7 first downs rushing and 15 first downs receiving.
 
All it's gonna take is Reggie getting out of the habit of bouncing outside. It really is that simple. It's all habit. He's probably ran like that since pee-wee football. Once he learns to cut to the hole, he'll be dangerous. How long will this take? Who knows? It could be this year or it could be the next couple of yrs. I do think the RB coach needs to working with him and he may be even as we speak. He's a rookie. He's a rookie that came out of a soft school, and a very soft conference. He'll learn it the NFL way and when he does...WATCH OUT!
 
Tiki wasnt even a 1st rounder, though. He still averaged 3.8 as a rookie. He never declared that his goal was to be the greatest ever. Bush is getting 2.6 per.

Would it be reasonable to compare rookie YPCs from first round RBs of Bush's stature?

Faulk 2nd pick~~~4.1
Dunn 12th pick~~~4.4
Bennett 27th pick~4.0
Portis 2nd Round~5.5
Parker undrafted~5.8

Westbrook barely made it out in the 3rd round, yet has never averaged under 4. The season is only 1/2 over....
 
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