Reggie Bush says the New Orleans Saints are still trying to figure out their objective and identity this season under first-year head coach Kellen Moore. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images)
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Reggie Bush is best known for his historic tenure with the USC Trojans, but it was with the New Orleans Saints where he began his NFL career.
The former Heisman Trophy winner spent the first five seasons of his NFL career with the Saints after they selected him with the No. 2 overall pick. Bush played the role of running back and punt returner during his first few years with the Saints, helping lead them to their first (and only) Super Bowl at the conclusion of the 2009 season season.
New Orleans was considered one of the top teams in the NFC during his tenure with the Saints, in large part due to the contributions of not only Bush, but also the arrivals of head coach Sean Payton and quarterback Drew Brees.
However, fast forward 15 years later and that definitely is not the case now. Brees has been retired for nearly five years and Payton left shortly after the all-time great quarterback’s retirement.
The Saints haven’t been to the playoffs since the 2020 season and they’re in search of their first playoff win since the conclusion of the 2018 season. New Orleans is in the midst of a new regime with Kellen Moore taking over as the head coach and Spencer Rattler as the full-time starting quarterback for the first time.
Bush calls this a “rebuilding” year for the Saints as they try to figure out what their identity is.
“What is their objective? I think they’re trying to figure that out right now,” Bush says while laughing when asked what New Orleans’ goal is this season. “They’re starting to still figure that objective out. It’s a first-time head coach, new quarterback, it’s going to be tough. You’re playing in a pretty good conference as well. It’s just tough for them right now. I haven’t seen a whole lot of positivity. We need a lot of help in a lot of places, I think it’s going to be an interesting year for the Saints. Honestly, this is going to be a rebuilding year for them.”
The Saints recently notched their first win in the Moore era, defeating the New York Giants, 26-14. It was not only Moore’s first win, but Rattler’s first win as a starting quarterback as well after losing his first 10 starts.
“We’ll see if Kellen Moore is the guy,” says Bush. “A lot of offensive coordinators get jobs and some guys get jobs before they’re ready. We’ll see if Kellen Moore is ready. That to me is the biggest question – is Kellen Moore ready to be a head coach? Because the thing that’s different about being an offensive coordinator compared to being a head coach is, you’re exposed to the entire world. As a head coach, you have to do interviews before and after games. That’s a different beast. These next two-to-three years are going to tell us a lot.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Saints as they’ll host a New England Patriots team coming off of a huge win over the previously undefeated Buffalo Bills. They’ll also face the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Los Angeles Rams in back-to-back weeks after playing against the Chicago Bears.
Bush – who knows a thing or two about the running game – says the Saints need to zone in more on the running game with Alvin Kamara. However, Kamara isn’t having a great season and is rushing for just 3.9 yards per carry. Furthermore, New Orleans seems to be shifting more of the carries to backup Kendre Miller, who had 10 rushing attempts to Kamara’s eight rushing attempts in their win over the Giants.
The Saints rank sixth in rushing attempts, but just 14th in yards and 21st in yards per carry. Bush reiterates running the offense through the running game and play action to protect Rattler and help him develop a rhythm.
“I would be relying heavily on the run game with Alvin Kamara, I would be utilizing play action as much as possible, says Bush. ”I would protect my young quarterback with play action, with running the football, and maybe some easy throws that he can make, just getting him into a rhythm, and then maybe try to open it up towards the middle of the game later. I would rely on play action with the tight ends and running the football.”
Bush mentions when the Saints had tremendous success with him running the football along with Pierre Thomas and Mike Bell. New Orleans ranked sixth in rushing when they won the Super Bowl during the 2009 season.
He hammers home that New Orleans should be set on establishing their run game to set the tone for the game.
“If you look at when Sean Payton was there, when the Saints were at their most successful, it was when Alvin Kamara was running the ball,” says Bush. “We had a strong run game. When we won the Super Bowl, when I was there, we were one of the best run teams that year in NFL. I just feel like running the football is always a lost art amongst these new offensive coordinators that turn head coaches. All they focus on is the quarterback position and so much of the NFL has been driven towards that.”
Reggie Bush Partners With CarGurus, Details His First Car While In College
The former Saints running back is partnering with CarGurus where he shares early memories of his first car and car-buying experiences as part of their series, The Big Deal Show. During the show, Bush shares his experience with his first car with Olympian Aly Raisman.
“The Big Deal Show was a lot of fun, and that’s more of their podcast-type show that I did with Aly Raisman, which was awesome,” says Bush. “Getting a chance to sit with her, a podcast interview, very laid back, relaxed and it was a lot of fun to be able to sit and talk and chat with an Olympian and learn a little bit about her background, her experience with cars growing up, my experience with cars growing up. We talked about our first car that we both had, which is a funny story. The podcast is really centered around just our experience with cars.”
Bush details that while he was winning the Heisman Trophy and winning National Championships at USC – he was with the Trojans from 2003 until 2005 – he was driving a 1996 Ford Ranger pickup truck.
He drove that truck until his rookie season with the Saints.
“The first car that I had in college, which was a 1996 Ford Ranger pickup truck, and it had a shell on the back of it, and it was burgundy,” says Bush. “This was the traditional color of this car, and it was burgundy, and it was a stick shift. Because you just don’t even hear about stick shifts anymore, but that’s the first car I learned how to drive was the stick shift. It’s funny, all my teammates used to make fun of me because it looked a lot like the Sanford and Son truck. They would always sing the Sanford and Son theme song, or they had nicknames for my truck, call it ‘Exterminator,’ all kinds of different things.
“Humble beginnings,” Bush continues. “I’ll never forget that truck and it provided me a lot of back and forth in college from Los Angeles to San Diego and so on.”