NEW ORLEANS--In the weeks leading up to the 2006 NFL draft, a debate raged over whether USC tailback Reggie Bush or NC State defender Mario Williams was more deserving of being the number one pick. Now, after watching them play for a season and a half, fans on both sides of the argument are admitting they were wrong.

“Well I was totally wrong about Reggie Bush,” ESPN analyst Tom Jackson said. “I thought he was going to be the next Marshall Faulk or the next Walter Payton, but he’s really just a fast but relatively useless third down back. What a waste. They would have been better off selecting Mario Williams. Actually, no. They would have been better off selecting Vince – no, not Vince Young. Let’s see here. They would have been better off…trading down to the 60th pick and taking Maurice Jones-Drew. Well they were only off by 58 picks.”

Since entering the league, Bush has averaged just 3.7 yards per carry as a running back, while performing slightly better as a receiver. While it’s too early to classify him as a bust, he clearly has failed to live up to expectations.

For the Saints, the unexpected joy of having Bush land in their laps has turned into disappointment.

“It doesn’t seem long ago we were celebrating the fact that Reggie Bush, the Reggie Bush, was coming to save New Orleans from ruins,” said GM Mickey Loomis. “What a stroke of luck that was! Now, I’m starting to think we would have been better off trading the pick. I bet we could have gotten three or four lower picks for him. Then again, there weren’t really three or four good players in that draft.”

When the Houston Texans selected Mario Williams at number one, they thought they were getting a perennial All-Pro who would anchor their defense for years to come. Instead, they got a mediocre pass rusher who is not even the best defensive end on his team.

CBS analyst Charley Casserly, who was GM when the Texans picked Williams, admits today that he was “way off” with his evaluation.

“We debated long and hard between Reggie Bush and Mario,” said Casserly. “We ended up going with Mario because we needed to improve our defense. We paid him a shitload of money too. And for what? For a guy who is going to get one pile-jumping sack per game? If I could do it all over, I’d trade that pick for someone like Brad Johnson and then resign again. At least that would be funny.”

Casserly does feel slightly vindicated now that Bush has turned out to be a disappointment.

“The only thing that makes me feel better is that the Bush supporters were wrong, too,” he said. “They thought I was such a moron for taking Mario over Reggie, but it turns out they were morons, too. We were all morons. Even the Vince Young people were morons. They though that loser was going to be the next John Elway? Wow. Mario Williams has a better chance of becoming the next John Elway.”

Perhaps no two people are more disappointed than Bush and Williams, both of whom are hard workers who just haven’t been able to adjust to the speed of the NFL. On the bright side, neither has to live with the shame of being the lesser of the two players.

“It eats away at me every day to see that I haven’t lived up to the hype,” Williams said on Monday. “I honestly believed I was as good as advertised. Sadly, that isn’t the case. But Reggie hasn’t been any good either, so at least I don’t have to sit back and watch him become the Michael Jordan to my Sam Bowie. Not that there was much of a chance of that anyway, since neither of us play basketball.”

Copyright 2007, The Brushback - Do not reprint without permission. This article is satire and is not intended as actual news.