Reggie Bush and the New Orleans Saints: Draft Night Drama, a Super Bowl Ring, and a City That Never Let Him Go
Second Overall, Not First – and That Made All the Difference
The night before the 2006 NFL Draft, almost everyone assumed Reggie Bush would be the first player called. The Houston Texans held the top pick. Draft analysts, scouts, media – nearly all of them pointed to Bush. Then the Texans took Mario Williams, a defensive end out of NC State, and the entire football world did a double-take. Sean Payton immediately got on the phone with Drew Brees. “I think we’re going to get this guy,” Payton told his quarterback. Brees later said he couldn’t believe it was even a possibility.
Bush had run the 40-yard dash in 4.33 seconds at USC’s pro day. He was 6 feet, 205 pounds, and had just won the 2005 Heisman Trophy in a landslide – 933 points ahead of second-place Vince Young. At USC he’d totaled 4,470 scrimmage yards and 38 touchdowns across three seasons. In November 2005, against Fresno State, he put up 513 all-purpose yards in a single game and set the Pac-10 record. These are the kinds of numbers that make a front office sweat when they think they might not get the player.
The Saints had the No. 2 pick. They used it. New Orleans went absolutely electric. Within a week of the draft, Reebok had received over 15,000 jersey orders – before Bush even had an official number. He’d wanted to wear No. 5, the number he’d worn at USC and in high school, but the NFL requires running backs to wear numbers between 20 and 49. The league formally rejected his request on May 23, 2006. Two days later, the Saints announced he’d wear No. 25, acquired from veteran running back Fred McAfee.
What New Orleans Was in 2006 – and Why That Draft Pick Meant Something Beyond Football
When Bush flew into New Orleans after the draft, he saw a city still torn apart by Hurricane Katrina. The Superdome, where evacuees had sheltered in appalling conditions just months earlier, was being rebuilt. Entire neighborhoods were gutted. Bush said later that the welcome he received from Saints fans – the warmth, the desperation for something good to root for – changed how he felt about playing there. He’d had reservations about the city before the draft. Those disappeared fast.
In May 2006, before he’d played a single regular-season snap, Bush donated $50,000 to keep Holy Rosary High School open. The school, which served students with learning disabilities, was facing closure. It wasn’t a PR move – he just did it. Joe Horn, the Saints wide receiver, watched Bush move during training camp and started calling him “Baby Matrix,” a reference to the way he made defensive backs look like they were moving in slow motion while he slipped past them.
Bush made the All-Rookie team that year with 565 rushing yards, six touchdowns, and 88 receptions for 742 yards. That reception total set an NFL record for catches by a rookie running back, a record that stood for years. He also averaged 7.7 yards per punt return with a touchdown. The Saints went 10-6 and made it to the NFC Championship Game in just Payton’s first season. They lost to Chicago 39-14, but nobody expected to be there at all.
Five Seasons in New Orleans – What the Stats Actually Show
Over five seasons (2006–2010), Bush carried the ball 524 times for 2,090 rushing yards and 17 touchdowns. He caught 294 passes for 2,142 receiving yards and 12 more scores. He returned 92 punts for 720 yards and 4 touchdowns. Total all-purpose yards in a Saints uniform: 4,982. Total touchdowns: 33.
He departed as the franchise’s all-time leader in receptions by a running back. More distinctively, he is still the only player in Saints history to score touchdowns rushing, receiving, and on a punt return – both in the regular season and in the postseason. That’s a specific kind of versatility that doesn’t show up cleanly in a stat line but tells you something real about what he was.
The honest complication in all of this: Bush never developed into the every-down starter his draft position implied. He played all 16 games only in his rookie year. Over the following four seasons, he appeared in just 44 of a possible 64 games, mostly due to knee problems. His rushing average as a Saint was 4.0 yards per carry – solid but not dominant. Deuce McAllister was still the feature back early in Bush’s tenure, and the Saints never fully committed to using Bush as a between-the-tackles runner because, frankly, that wasn’t what he was built to do. Payton used him correctly: as a chess piece, a mismatch creator, a receiver who happened to be lined up in the backfield.
The 2008 Season: All-Pro Recognition and What Made Him Dangerous on Returns
In 2008, Bush was named an All-Pro punt returner. He scored three punt return touchdowns that season, which tied for the Saints franchise record all on its own. What made him so difficult to defend on returns wasn’t just speed – it was the combination of patience and acceleration. He’d let the coverage converge, find the crease at the last possible second, and be gone before anyone could adjust. Opposing special teams coaches genuinely had to game-plan around him every week he was active.
He only returned 20 punts total across his five Saints seasons, which is a low number. Injuries cost him significant return opportunities, and Payton was understandably protective of his most explosive weapon. But those 20 returns produced 3 touchdowns – a ratio that tells the story. And it doesn’t include what he did in the playoffs.
The 2009 Postseason: His Best Football as a Saint
The 2009 Saints were 13-3 and the best team in the NFL. Bush had a quiet regular season by his standards – knee issues limited him again – but the playoffs were something else.
In the Divisional round against the Arizona Cardinals on January 16, 2010, he had 84 rushing yards on just 5 carries, including a 46-yard touchdown run that stood as the longest postseason run in Saints history. Then, late in the third quarter with the Saints already controlling the game, he fielded a punt and returned it 83 yards for a touchdown. The final score was 45-14. That’s two explosive plays in one postseason game – the kind of performance that Saints fans who were there still bring up.
The NFC Championship against the Minnesota Vikings was messier. Bush had only 8 rushing yards on 7 carries and fumbled a punt return, which was ugly. But he caught a late touchdown pass that helped the Saints hold on in overtime. New Orleans won. First Super Bowl appearance in franchise history. Bush was part of the reason they got there, even on a bad day.
Super Bowl XLIV on February 7, 2010, ended 31-17 over the Indianapolis Colts. Bush’s numbers were modest – 5 carries for 25 yards, 4 receptions for 38 yards – but he was on the field, he was a champion, and that city had been waiting 43 years for that game.
The Trade to Miami and Why Bush Left
In the 2011 NFL Draft, the Saints selected Alabama running back Mark Ingram, the 2009 Heisman Trophy winner, in the first round. The message was unmistakable. Bush was 25 years old and wanted to be an every-down starter, not a specialist in a timeshare backfield. Both sides acknowledged it was time to move on.
On July 28, 2011, the Saints traded Bush and a 2012 sixth-round pick to the Miami Dolphins in exchange for a sixth-round pick and safety Jonathon Amaya. Bush called it “a mutual decision” and said he had no bitterness toward the organization. Sean Payton called Bush before the trade happened. “Whenever you’re able to win a championship,” Payton said afterward, “it validates every selection, every trade, and every signing that brought you to that moment.”
What happened next is worth noting because it gets overlooked: Bush was actually more productive as a rusher after leaving New Orleans. He posted his first two 1,000-yard rushing seasons with Miami and Detroit, respectively. His rushing average improved. He wasn’t the electric return specialist anymore, but he was a more complete conventional back in his late 20s than he’d been with the Saints. The Saints years were the highlight-reel era; the post-Saints years were quieter but statistically stronger on the ground.
Heisman, NCAA, and the Controversy That Ran Through His Saints Years
The NCAA concluded its investigation of the USC football program in June 2010 – the same year Bush won his Super Bowl ring. The findings: Bush had received improper benefits during his college career, including cash payments and housing for his family. The sanctions hit USC hard: a two-year postseason ban, 30 scholarship reductions, and the vacation of wins from the 2004 and 2005 seasons, including the 2004 national championship.
On September 14, 2010, Bush voluntarily surrendered his 2005 Heisman Trophy before the Heisman Trust formally acted. It was returned to the trophy case in New York empty. His name was removed from the record books. For 14 years, the 2005 Heisman had no winner.
In 2024, amid sweeping NCAA rule changes around name, image, and likeness – rules that effectively legalized the kinds of benefits Bush had received – the Heisman Trust reinstated his trophy. Bush got it back. The NCAA’s position had essentially become: the thing we punished him for is now legal. It’s hard not to notice that the reinstatement came 14 years after the forfeiture, and only because the rules changed around him rather than because anyone concluded the original punishment was wrong.
Saints Hall of Fame, October 2019
Bush was inducted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame on October 27, 2019, during halftime of a Saints-Cardinals game at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. He was inducted alongside wide receiver Marques Colston – his teammate, fellow 2006 draft classmate, and one of the great quiet careers in Saints history. The Saints had taken Bush at No. 2 overall and Colston in the seventh round. Two Hall of Famers from the same draft class, 225 picks apart.
Bush had been working as a college football analyst for Fox Sports at the time, appearing on Big Noon Kickoff alongside Brady Quinn, Matt Leinart, and Urban Meyer. He flew in from a game broadcast that Saturday and went straight to New Orleans. His induction speech circled back to the same thing he’d said in 2006: “My heart was always in New Orleans and it always will be.”
Where He Stands in Saints History
The clean summary: in five seasons, Bush produced 4,982 all-purpose yards, 33 touchdowns, and a Super Bowl ring. He set the franchise record for receptions by a running back. He is still the only Saint to score touchdowns all three ways – rushing, receiving, and on a punt return – in both the regular season and postseason. He made the All-Rookie team, earned an All-Pro selection, and was on the field when the franchise won its only championship.
What doesn’t fit as neatly: he never became the dominant featured back that a second overall pick might suggest. The knee issues were real. The every-down role never materialized. He left at 25 because the organization moved on, and he went on to have 1,000-yard rushing seasons somewhere else. Whether that reflects poorly on the Saints’ use of him or simply on the limits of what he was is genuinely unclear, and anyone who tells you otherwise is glossing over something.
Bush himself said it best, years after the trade, when asked about his time in New Orleans: “I want to go to the French Quarter, walk out, hug it out, and sign some jerseys. Those are my people.” He meant it. And New Orleans, by every measure, still feels the same way about him.
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