I’d be happy if Bush ran with the same conviction that Pierre does. Just as I’d be happy if Thomas was as gifted a receiving threat out of the backfield as Reggie is. I think most would agree that Thomas comes closer to the quinessential definition of “all-purpose back”, at least in terms of offensive production.

And I think that’s where the bulk of the frustration lies for so many Saints fans, including myself. Why is an undrafted free agent seemingly outperforming (or even performing comparably to) a second overall selection? It’s a valid question. Primarily because it’s two players from the same team.

The biggest argument we hear in Bush’s favor is that he brings so much to the table in other areas. Specifically, in terms of total yardage (including special teams). But is that even true?

Let’s look back on the RB Class of 2006:

Maurice Jones-Drew – 127.7 total ypg
Jerious Norwood – 120.0 total ypg
Leon Washington – 114.0 total ypg
Reggie Bush – 96.0 total ypg
DeAngelo Williams – 93.2 total ypg
Laurence Maroney – 92.2 total ypg
Joseph Addai – 83.5 total ypg
Wali Lundy – 53.4 total ypg
LenDale White – 51.8 total ypg
Brian Calhoun – 30.0 total ypg
Patrick Cobbs (undrafted) – 20.1 total ypg
Jerome Harrison – 19.1 total ypg
Michael Robinson – 18.5 total ypg
Quinton Ganther – 6.1 total ypg
Montell Owens (undrafted) – 2.0 total ypg

Where would Pierre Thomas rank in this class? Fourth. His 110.0 total ypg would actually bump Bush down another notch. Obviously, both have excelled on special teams, as have several of the other backs listed.

Where Bush comes closest to blowing the class out of the water, is in the receiving department. A seemingly guaranteed first down per game better than MJD is something we should all be beating our chests about.

Reggie Bush – 42.1 rec ypg
Maurice Jones-Drew – 30.0 rec ypg
Joseph Addai – 20.8 rec ypg
Leon Washington – 17.5 rec ypg
Jerious Norwood – 15.9 rec ypg
Wali Lundy – 14.6 rec ypg
DeAngelo Williams – 13.5 rec ypg
Laurence Maroney – 10.3 rec ypg
Patrick Cobbs (undrafted) – 8.9 rec ypg
Michael Robinson – 6.9 rec ypg
Jerome Harrison – 5.5 rec ypg
Brian Calhoun – 5.0 rec ypg
LenDale White – 4.2 rec ypg
Quinton Ganther – 2.5 rec ypg
Montell Owens (undrafted) – 0.9 rec ypg

Let’s revisit Pierre in this category. Rank? Fifth. Thomas’s 16.1 rec ypg fails to whiff the fumes emanating from Reggie’s dual carburator exhaust, but they’re good enough to land him among the household names on this list, once again.

One more category, since I have no life anyway. For the sake of being 21st century savvy, we’ll call rushing production the FORMER most important aspect of a running back’s on-the-field existence.

Joseph Addai – 62.7 rush ypg
DeAngelo Williams – 60.7 rush ypg
Laurence Maroney – 55.8 rush ypg
Maurice Jones-Drew – 53.9 rush ypg
LenDale White – 47.3 rush ypg
Reggie Bush – 40.8 rush ypg
Jerious Norwood – 38.6 rush ypg
Wali Lundy – 34.0 rush ypg
Leon Washington – 30.2 rush ypg
Michael Robinson – 6.1 rush ypg
Brian Calhoun – 4.9 rush ypg
Patrick Cobbs (undrafted) – 4.1 rush ypg
Quinton Ganther – 3.6 rush ypg
Jerome Harrison – 2.2 rush ypg
Montell Owens (undrafted) – 0.4 rush ypg

Thomas’s rank? Ninth at 32.5 ypg. Which isn’t terribly surprising, considering how seldom he played offense his rookie season. Yards per game as a statistic is inherently predicated on player utilization. Unfortunately, there’s not a better measuring stick available to compare these players’ three season production totals. Unless, you want to go yards per carry. And if anything you’ve seen here has made you sick to your stomach, believe me, you DO NOT want me to go there.

I guess the bottom line is, we have two very talented athletes on our team at running back. One is just considerably less “well-rounded” than the other (putting it gently).

In April 2006, I was watching the NFL Draft at Buffalo Wild Wings with some friends. Suppose Biff had shown up in a stolen DeLorean and shoved a 2009 sports almanac in my face. “Here!” he would have shouted. “Here are Reggie Bush’s career statistics from three years in the future.”

Sounds silly, I know. But hey, Reggie DID arrive before his time. We’ve already established that. He arrived in a silver spaceship, along with John Titor, LeBron James, Marty McFly, Lionel Messi, E.T. and a host of other strange visitors from more advanced astral plane.

Seeing his statistics in post-printed black & white, though, I have to wonder how I would have reacted. My gut instinct tells me not much differently than I did when they actually drafted Reggie, “OMFG, we could have had D’Brickashaw.” Probably the LAST thing out of my mouth would’ve been “25 Reggie … BAM! The future of NFL running backs.”

I take that back. The absolute LAST thing out of my mouth would’ve been the buffalo wings I was chowing down on, at the time of the selection. Those things are killer. But yeah, we could’ve done a little better with the pick in hindsight. I’m over it.

To Sean Payton’s credit, he seems to be coming to terms with what he drafted. He’s no longer trying to fit a square peg in a round hole quite as often. Which is peachy for now. I’m just not sure how I’ll feel about that situation, if and when Thomas goes down with a season ending injury.

In 2000, BOTH Ricky Williams and Jeff Blake went down in successive weeks. We still managed to make it to the playoffs (and advance), with a then-unknown Aaron Brooks playing brilliantly and a hodge podge backfield of Terry Allen, Jerald Moore and Chad Morton. I guess as long as capable workhorse backs like Deuce and Wali Lundy — thought that slipped my attention, didn’t you? — remain unsigned, we’ll be okay.

I just wish we had another on the team right now. Like Jacksonville currently has in MJD and Rashad Jennings (and Greg Jones), for example. Then again, as long as we’re content on throwing the ball 70% of the time, it probably doesn’t matter who we have lined up behind Brees. As long as they can pass block, right? WHO DAT?!