Everyone wrote Bush off. Best player on our offense in 2011. Steal.

 

I'd like to see Daniel Thomas used more as the featured back and Reggie used more split out wide and in different formations. D-train will be fine if our passing game gets better as it will open up the run game.

 

I don't think there's anything wrong with using Bush as a feature back. You don't want his load to be too heavy, but the guy was one of the best backs in the league the second half of the season. I'd like to see what Thomas can do in a more zone oriented blocking scheme though. I think it will serve his running style better.

 

Wishful thinking...

 

Swap of picks in the 6th with NO pushes us down of course, but its a whole lot better than all the reports saying we had traded a conditional pick.....good to atleast have all our picks (even if swap of 6th rounders).

 

I will admit that I under estimated Bush going into last season. I didn't think he would be nearly as effective as he was. Unfortunately I don't think at his size he can continue to be utilized as often as he was last season in the running game. His history of injuries doesn't appear to show that he can take the pounding throughout the season. Hopefully Philbin and Sherman will find ways to use him more on the outside and less as a runner up the middle.

I am not real high on Thomas and I don't see him being much of a factor in the offense this coming season. Hopefully Messam can be the power back the Dolphins thought they were getting when they drafted Thomas. I would love to see the Dolphins draft Trent Richardson if he is available at the 8th pick, but with Ireland doing the selecting, I figure the Dolphins will take another offensive or defensive lineman with this pick.

 

I don't think Bush is a very good receiving option. He's very dangerous in space, but he doesn't really lend himself well as a route runner or a guy who gets open on his own wiles as a route runner. He's not Marshall Faulk. A bigger issue is that he's maybe the worst pass blocking back in the league. I think the Dolphins could actually do themselves a favor by just letting him focus on running the ball and if you want to get him involved in the passing game it should be screens and stuff like that.

 

His injury history does concern me, however his size does not. Seems like you have him confused for Darren Sproles. The guy is the same size as many durable full time running backs.

 

I agree with you relative to his pass blocking. I don't agree with you on his ability as a receiver. Reggie had 260 receptions in his first four seasons in the NFL, which is third all time for running backs in between 1920 and 2011. The only two running backs that caught more passes than Reggie in their first four seasons are Roger Craig and LaDainian Tomlinson. I think this past season was a case of a coaching staff that barely knew how to get him involved in the running game, much less the passing game.

 

See my other post. This coaching staff did a horrific job of trying to figure out how to use him in the running game early on. He was clearly one of the two best players on this offense as the season ended, the other being Matt Moore.

 

I totally disagree. Early on Reggie Bush didn't understand how to run the ball up the middle. Watching him during the season you can see him slowly figuring it out and getting better and better at it. Towards the end of the season he looked like an actual full time running back.

 

He had loads of receptions, but to what effect? His career best is 8.5 yards a reception. Most of his career he's been well below that. He's getting forced the ball because he was advertised and because of his "potential" and hasn't really achieved it.

 

Actually, it's D. Thomas who needs to get more involved in the passing game. When watching his "tape" before he was drafted, that's the quality that really jumped out at me. He has really good, natural receiving abilities.

 

IMO Bush showed a patience running between the tackles that he had not shown in NO. I think the biggest difference between the first and second half of the season was that the OL blocked better on the interior and that Daboll did a better job of giving him opportunities outside the tackles and as a receiver. I do agree that he is a horrid pass blocker and an average route runner, but he is above average in space. That is the one area I think he improved in as the season went along. Early on, he never seemed to beat anybody one on one. At the end of the season he was beating LBs in those situations.

I also think that DT is best suited to running behind zone blocking. He could be one of the biggest beneficiaries of Sherman's hiring.

 

I also saw at the beginnig of the season he was running as a scat back. Trying to break all of the runs he had. Which caused him to get 2 yards on a run that should have gotten 4 or 4 yards on a run that should have gotten 8.

I do agree that the interior line got better as the year went on, however I also saw a runningback that was better at maximizing the yards per carry. Which allowed him to break a run when he hit the hole correctly and able to once in a while juke the **** out of a linebacker and getting a long run.

 

I think that at the beginning of the year he had to break them outside b/c the holes were not there inside. I saw that patience during the preseason on times when there were holes. I'm saying he ran as well inside early as he did late, but the openings weren't there until late. That was the primary difference in production inside.

 

I guess I am disagreeing with you. I thought early on he danced in the hole and didn't try to grind it out. His tendancy to bounce it outside cost his offense yards. Rather than getting 2 he would get zero.

 

Yeah, that's a good example. I think they just didn't use him enough in that way. It's a bit surprising because that was an obvious skill of his coming out of college. I expect to see him used more this upcoming season.

 

Not many share our view on this one, but I totally agree. They made a lousy attempt to get him in space early on and just kept pounding him up the middle, even when the middle wasn't opening up any holes.(that doesn't sound too good). I understand that they had to get him used to the pounding to get a feel for that type of game and what he can do, but it was too much of that and not enough of the other. The whole team, coaching staff included, seemed to get their heads screwed on right halfway through the season.

 

I think what we'll end up seeing a lot of is neither Bush nor Thomas in the backfield, but rather a fair amount of Charles Clay. The Packers used a lot of either replacing a HB with a FB in the shotgun, or multi-fullback shotgun formations and Clay would lend himself very well to that.

 

Doesn't Reggie count 6 million against the cap? That's some serious coin for someone who barely cracked the 1000 yard mark. I'm also inclined to think that if Miami would have reached the playoffs, Bush would have been too banged up to contribute. I really respect Reggie's leadership and work ethic but if he's not restructured he needs to go.

 

I agree that we will and should see a lot more of Clay, but Reggie and D. Thomas are not going to just sit on the bench. The point was how they can better use D. Thomas.

 

I was skeptical of signing him. I still wish we signed Sproles instead, who seemed like he would fit the Sparano power running philosophy better. But Bush played well last year as the featured back and silenced doubters like myself. The question now is can he do it again? I think with our implementation of the West Coast offense here, I think it will benefit Reggie as he's always been more of a pass catching, scat back which is perfect for the WCO. I don't think Philbin/Sherman will count on him to carry the ball on every down, they'll likely try and see what they have with Daniel Thomas for that role and have Reggie back to his traditional complementary role.

 

Someone will need to be our Ahman Green/Ryan Grant...

 

While Bush is certainly not what you would consider a BIG running back, I will admit that he isn't small either. Until last year though, he had never been utilized as a between the tackles running back. Even when he was at USC, he was used mostly on plays where he could get to the corner. The teams he played on always had larger backs who were utilized to run the plays up the middle.

Bush certainly ran much better between the tackles last season than I thought he could. Yet he wasn't able to play in the last game of the season due to injury. If the goal of the Dolphins is just to keep him for one more year and then let him go. I can see them letting him once again be the feature back and run it up the middle as he did last year. But if they plan to try and resign him after the 2012 season and they want to have him around for three or four more seasons, running him between the tackles on a consistent basic is probably not in his or the teams best long term interest.

 

With the fact that he wasn't really used as a player who runs up the middle or an every down back until last season. And still last season he had around 200 carries, I think they can use him for 3 or 4 seasons as a back that runs up the middle. His body isn't breaking down as a back who has been used as a main back would.

His knees are a concern, which is why I wouldn't want to pay him 6 million dollars a year for the next 4 years.

Some players are injury prone, some are not. I have yet to see someone out there prove what makes a player injury prone or not. Also there have been players who started out injury prone and then had long careers.

That being said, I think Reggie Bush is better in a two back system.

 

Why is this so late? It was reported over a month ago ...

http://www.thephinsider.com/2012/1/24/2730036/miami-dolphins-reggie-bush-trade-details

https://twitter.com/#!/BenVolinPBP/status/161851924713443328