Michael Bush plans to watch tomorrow’s NFL draft with his family, though he hadn’t determined the location of the viewing party as of Wednesday.
“I’ve got a couple places set aside just in case,” he said.
Uncertainty rules when it comes to Michael Bush and this draft. The former University of Louisville running back presents possibly the biggest quandary of any prospect this weekend, thanks to the combination of his unique talent and his unsettling injury status.
Michael Bush broke his right leg in the first game of his senior season against the University of Kentucky. In March, with the injury still not healing properly, he had a second surgery and a second titanium rod placed in his leg.
The Male High School product said he feels great now, and he expects to be running full speed by June, about a month ahead of his original timetable. But how the NFL will view him tomorrow remains to be seen.
“I have no idea,” Michael Bush said. “You hear little things like on ESPN, but nobody seems to know anything for sure.”
ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. projects Michael Bush as going to Atlanta and former U of L coach Bobby Petrino in the third round with the 75th overall pick.
“When I talk to teams, they say third round,” Kiper said. “That makes sense to me if you consider that you won’t get a lot from him as a rookie. You’re almost drafting him for 2008, rather than 2007.”
The internet site NFLDraftCountdown.com also has Michael Bush going in the third round to the Falcons. But the site’s founder, Scott Wright, said he wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Bush fell to draft’s second day because of concerns about his health.
Former Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese wonders if it’s worth the gamble. He called drafting Michael Bush “a very risky proposition.”
“I would really shy away from him,” said Reese, who oversaw the Titans for 13 years before becoming an ESPN draft analyst. “That’s a scary injury.”
Michael Bush, who gained more than 2,300 yards and scored 36 touchdowns in his Louisville career, doesn’t put much stock in such doomsday talk. He said he views a late second-round selection as “my worst-case scenario.”
“A lot of people think a broken leg is worse than what it is,” he said. “It’s a bone. It’s going to heal completely.”
Last week, Michael Bush’s agent, Todd France, sent all 32 NFL teams a DVD of his client jogging, squatting and performing agility drills like jumping rope. France also attached a letter from renowned sports surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who wrote that Michael Bush had made “remarkable improvement” and that X-rays indicated the leg was “99 percent healed.”
But draft observers wonder how much impact the packet would make.
“On one hand, it’s a positive that he’s ahead of schedule in the recovery process,” said Todd McShay of Scouts Inc. and ESPN.com. “But you can’t mistake that for a full combine workout or a pro day workout, and it doesn’t change the fact that he’s not able to work out at full speed. It doesn’t answer any questions about whether he can get back to full speed.”
Reese said he used to receive such tapes frequently from prospects who wanted to show they were healthy or better than their combine scores. But he said each team must gather its own information.
“I’d have to bring him in and have my doctors look at him and run all the tests,” he said. “I’d want to know not only where he is today, but where he’ll be a year from now.”
Michael Bush said he has traveled to visit three teams: San Diego, Miami and New England.
Though many have speculated that Atlanta would be interested in him, Michael Bush said he hasn’t had contact with anyone from the Falcons since speaking briefly to Petrino at the combine in February.
Kiper said that he could envision Atlanta rolling the dice in the second round and that the Philadelphia Eagles might be interested in a big back like Michael Bush, who was listed at 250 pounds during his senior year.
“Once you get past (Oklahoma’s) Adrian Peterson and (California’s) Marshawn Lynch, he’s got the most potential out there,” Wright said. “It’s not a very exciting group of running backs. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a team take a flier on him earlier than expected.”
When it comes to Michael Bush and this draft, hardly anything would be surprising anymore.
