1) Introduction: How do you grade Jarrett Bush? If you grade him solely as a special teams player, then he’s one of the best players on the team. If you grade him solely as a cornerback, then you have to wonder why the Packers keep him on the roster. If you grade him based on both, is special teams really as important as the defense?
2) Profile:
Jarrett Lee Bush
- Age: 30
- Born: May 21, 1984 in Vacaville, CA
- Height: 6’0″
- Weight: 200
- College: Utah State
- Rookie Year: 2006
- NFL Experience: 9
3) Expectations coming into the season: Excel at special teams; don’t find your way onto the defense; don’t piss off the fan base. Jarrett Bush is one of the more interesting players on the Packers roster; once reviled for being a terrible cornerback, fans will now equally cheer and boo him depending on when he’s on the field. He’s the Packers special teams ace but not even the Packers 5th option at cornerback. People love him when he makes a open field tackle on a punt return and will equally hate him when he makes a open field tackle on defense (mostly cause he let the receiver slip by him). Ironically, Bush actually didn’t fare all that well on special teams in 2013, but made up for it in a big way in 2014, going from a PFF -2.0 to 7.5 and ranking 20th in the league out of 1,200 players on special teams according to PFF.
4) Player’s highlights/low-lights: Ironically both of Bush’s best games came against the Seattle Seahawks were he recorded 2 special teams tackles. As for lowlight, having to play 15 snaps on the defense (and grading poorly) against Miami was probably Bush’s worst performance in 2014
5) Player’s contribution to the overall team success: This really boils down to how much you value special teams. If you feel special teams is 1/3 of football, then Bush is one of the better players on the team. Personally I feel like its somewhere more in the range of 15-20% in which case its maybe about half as important as the two other sides of football. That being said, Bush was (and never really is) a good cornerback; if he had recorded enough snaps to qualify for my grading, he have been somewhere in the D range. On special teams, Bush is an A+, which I’ve already stated is about half as important as the defense, so lets called his special teams grade a C+. So overall, Bush gets a C+ by averaging his defensive and special teams grade.
6) Player’s contributions in the playoffs: Bush played a grand total of 3 snaps on defense in the playoffs but again graded well on special teams. With such a small sample size I’m not really sure what to make of his grade; 3 snaps is essentially statistically insignificant outside the New England Journal of Medicine (you trying finding more than three people with X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome type 2) and special teams players get so little snaps to start out with. Feel free to disagree with my grade, which is purely my biased opinion, but Bush gets a C overall as well because he’s an A grade special teams player, but an A on special teams is worth half as much as it would be on defense.
7) Intangibles: I’d really like Bush to write an memoir of his career with the Packers (along with John Kuhn), I think it would be one of the more interesting stories of a player who is loved and reviled almost equally at the same time.
Season Report Card (Player Grades):
(A+) Level of expectations met during the season
(C+) Contributions to team’s overall success.
(C) Contributions to team during the playoffs
Overall Grade: B-
——————Thomas Hobbes is a staff writer for Jersey Al’s AllGreenBayPackers.com.
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Bush is my favorite player on the Packers. So hard working and such a team player… I like how you factor his grade. Seems fair enough. I really hope the Packers keep him.
Well said. You need guys like Bush – he is the glue that binds the team
On a team where there’s too much inexperience on special teams, Bush or someone similar is desperately needed.
Bush was incredibly hard to grade; he’s not a great cornerback but he’s a great special teamer but then special teamers isn’t as important as cornerbacks. Bush has been reported to something of a physical marvel even at his age, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Packers keep him since he won’t be too expensive as a exclusive special teams player.
I think your analysis is fair. His $2.03 million cap number was 16th highest on the team. He made more money than only 7 players not on their rookie contracts. I view that sort of money as low veteran back up money suitable for the type of player who gives the team 15 snaps or so a game. Bush did that at a high level. Grade C+ is fine.
I’m surprised more people aren’t disagreeing on me for this one since I feel Bush might be the most subjective grade on the entire team (until the ginger wolverine post goes up I suppose)
X-linked lymphoproliferative syndrome type 2- did you make this up?
Bush is a TEAM player. If we could find a couple more Aaron would be shopping for a Superbowl ring. We had too many people trying to do too much and not their team job. I would move Bush Up a notch just because he plays within the framework of TEAM. Special Teams only work when 11 guys know their role and perform.
Thank you Jarrett