This past week on NFL Network’s ‘Good Morning Football’, James Palmer dropped a fascinating nugget about Miami Dolphins wide receiver Jaylen Waddle. And either no one seemed to notice or no one seemed to care. But regardless, Waddle’s factoid about how former Alabama Crimson Tide offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian coveted Waddle’s talent is perhaps the best endorsement yet of what the Dolphins drafted with the No. 6 overall pick in this year’s NFL draft.
“I talked to so many people in the scouting process about Jaylen Waddle. And a couple of teams told me this: Steve Sarkisian told them that (Waddle) is the only player he would ever put in the category of Reggie Bush. Which is a remarkable sense of praise,” said Palmer.
“The way he gets in and out of breaks, double moves, all the quickness, all the speed that he has.”
Reggie Bush’s Heisman Trophy-winning season back in 2005 took place with Sarkisian as the team’s quarterback coach under Pete Carroll, so the now-Texas head coach hd the chance to see both explosive talents up close and personal throughout the course of his college coaching career — and countless other talents along the way, too.
And while Bush’s pro career didn’t exactly measure up to the expectations that came with being the No. 2 overall pick in 2006, Bush still managed to finish his career with 9.088 yards from scrimmage and 54 career touchdowns over 11 seasons. Bush’s career high in rushing, 1,086 yards, came with none other than the Dolphins back in 2011. And Bush played 11 total seasons in the league with punt return duties logging an additional 4 touchdowns over those years.
So the rarified company of Waddle and Bush certainly means more from the sense of being great athletes and carries more weight in the college landscape. But never the less, Sarkisian has been around the best of the best between the mid-2000s Trojans dynasty and the current iteration of the Crimson Tide dynasty. And between both of those stops and everything in between, apparently Waddle is the only athlete who can hold a candle to Reggie Bush through Sarkisian’s eyes.