O.K I just don't get it. As some of you know I wasn't for drafting McFadden because we have Bush who I believe will be a stud. We took McFadden and that is that. I hope he and Bush become a nightmare for the league. My problem is that before the draft the media never said ONE WORD about Bush. Everybody talked about Fargas and is he really a #1 guy. NOBODY, I mean NOBODY, not even the local media said a word about Bush and they all said we should take McFadden. So we did. I open my paper today (yes I still read the paper) and there is yet another article on how good bush looks. I'll post it on the bottom. I have seen 2 ESPN reports, 1 on the NFL net, a couple on Comcast sports net and now for the third day in the CCtimes I have seen reports on how good Bush looks. He's smooth, Healthy and quick they say. What gives? Not that McFadden won't be solid but why "after" the draft does all the reports on how good Bush looks comes out. Half of us on this board were talking about how good Bush will be before the draft. Not that it matters now I just find it kind of funny.
ALAMEDA -- Pity the defender who crosses paths with Raiders running back Michael Bush for the first time. Bush is a load at 6-foot-2 and 245 pounds, with a ball in his hands and the goal line in his sights.
Throw in the fact that Bush hasn't played in a game for 20 months, his surgically repaired right leg is healed, and he isn't assured any playing time, and you have the recipe for a player in search of someone to take it out on.
"I've been telling people that my season starts the first preseason game," Bush said Saturday, in reference to the Raiders exhibition game against the 49ers on Aug. 8.
Then again, little has worked out as expected for Bush the past two years. He last played in a football game in Louisville's season-opener against Kentucky in Sept. of 2006. He sustained a broken right leg in that game and missed the rest of the season.
The injury required a second surgery just before the 2007 NFL draft. He dropped from a first-round prospect into the laps of the Raiders with the first pick of the fourth round. The running back-rich Raiders kept Bush out of practice for most of last season and he didn't play in any games.
Why risk another setback, especially when veterans LaMont Jordan, Dominic Rhodes and Justin Fargas were on the roster? Bring him along slow, and then turn him loose this season. So went the thinking.
A breakout season by Fargas coupled with the Raiders' selection of running back Darren McFadden with the fourth pick of the NFL draft last month scuttled the original plan.
"At first, I was like why do we need another back?" Bush admitted in a news conference Saturday.
Ultimately, Bush decided to do what he has become quite adept at doing of late, making the best of a less-than-ideal situation.
"I just want to get on the field and just play," Bush said. "Special teams, I'm all down for anything, just being on the field and getting the atmosphere. I'm just ready."
Bush's readiness no longer is in question. He runs at full speed, makes sharp cuts, catches the ball in traffic, and blends in seamlessly. It's his worthiness to play ahead of Fargas and McFadden that clouds his future.
Fargas rushed for more than 1,000 yards last season and received a sizable new contract during the offseason. McFadden is a first-round pick on the verge of receiving a contract that should net him at least $20 million guaranteed over five years or so.
Naturally, Raiders coach Lane Kiffin said none of the aforementioned factors go into the equation.
"We'll open the competition up," Kiffin said, "and who knows? Michael Bush may be the best of the three."
If that sounds like the company line, then perhaps you'll find value in running backs coach Tom Rathman's assessment of the team's muddled running backs situation.
"Our philosophy is, it doesn't matter what you've done in the past," Rathman said.
Therefore, Fargas' 1,009 yards rushing, McFadden's high-profile status, Jordan's fall from grace -- he likely will be cut before this season -- and Bush's false start mean nothing anymore. It's, "What-have-you-done-for-me-lately and what-can-you-do-for-me-this-season time?"
"We have a standard here of the play that we want to present as a group of running backs, and we're going to hold everybody that suits up and steps out on that field to those standards," Rathman said. "When you're not able to get it done to those standards, we're going to go to the next guy. Somebody's going to perform for us, and it's going to be at a high level."
The smart money says Fargas and McFadden split the bulk of the carries, with Fargas the primary ball carrier, and Bush assumes the role of short-yardage/goal-line back.
It might not be what the Raiders or Bush envisioned a year ago but, hey, it beats what both experienced last season.
It also helps Bush that he has been in a similar situation before. At Louisville, he spent time backing up Eric Shelton and Lionel Gates before he assumed the lead role.
"Everybody just complements each other," Bush said.
