Buffalo Bills: What Happened to Reggie Bush This Season?
By Ryan Brennan
The Buffalo Bills weren’t expecting a lot from Reggie Bush this season, but they were expecting more than what he’s given.
The Buffalo Bills made some noise earlier this year when they announced the signing of Reggie Bush. He joined an already-crowded Bills’ backfield that included LeSean McCoy, Karlos Williams, Mike Gillislee and Jonathan Williams — among a few others.
No one expected him to make a big contribution this season and he definitely wasn’t given a lot of chances. However, he definitely should’ve produced more with the amount of chances he was given.
Reggie Bush finished the season with 12 carries, but struggled to get any quality runs and ended with -3 yards this year. In 12 games, Bush only finished with positive yardage in 5 of them. He finished with negative yardage in three of them (-8 yards twice vs. Patriots and Dolphins, -4 yards vs. Ravens) and had 0 carries in the other four. He did finish with a rushing TD, though.
He was better as a receiver, finishing with 90 yards on 7 catches, all of which coming during a four-game stretch in the middle of the season.
His -3 rushing yards on 12 carries makes him the “first non-quarterback since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970 to finish a season with negative yards on 10 or more carries,” according to the Buffalo News. He could’ve avoided this with some carries vs. the Jets, but he didn’t see any of that action.
"“It’s tough,” Bush said in the Bills’ locker room Wednesday. “I just didn’t have a lot of opportunities this year. And so I’m not worried about that, finishing with negative yards or anything like that. If I had more opportunities, it would be a different story. But I didn’t have that.”"
Although we weren’t expecting much from him, his performance still came as a surprise.
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Bush passed his physical during Buffalo’s training camp at St. John Fisher College and signed his one-year contract on August 1st. Everyone knew he was a very talented player, but injuries have been a big concern in his career. Even last season, he tore his left meniscus during an accident on the concrete surrounding the field.
Many people thought he wouldn’t make a return to the NFL, but the Buffalo Bills gave him a chance. At first, it seemed like they would use him as a return specialist.
A couple weeks later, the Bills announced the release of second-year running back Karlos Williams. After that, people started to wonder if we would use Reggie Bush in the running game, as well.
A couple weeks later, the Bills signed Brandon Tate to a one-year deal as a return specialist. At that time, McCoy was healthy and Mike Gillislee was the Bills’ backup. That raised the question, why does Buffalo have Bush?
With his performance this season — and more importantly the amazing play of Gillislee — a similar question has been raised: Will the Bills bring Reggie Bush back next season?
He made $1.5 million this season to net -3 yards, do we risk it again or put it towards someone that’s more of a need?
With McCoy playing some of the best football of his career and Gillislee looking like a starting running back at times, I don’t think the need for Bush is there. We don’t use him that much, he’s getting older, we have other young backs to turn to that have more upside than him, I mean it’s just not necessary.
If he had a bigger role this season and did a better job with the chances he was given, this might be a different story.
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Do you think Reggie Bush will return to the Buffalo Bills next season? Leave your comments below!