More good news—for us, not so much for him—concerning the free agent status of the Raiders' Michael Bush. This time it comes to us via Bill Williamson of ESPN. Williamson is a well plugged in blogger for the AFC West, so when he says, "According to two NFL sources I spoke to Tuesday, the current expectation is, indeed, that Bush will be restricted," I tend to believe that his sources are people in the know, and chances are that at least one of them was with the Raiders.
So this follows the fire that Adam Caplan started. Caplan had been matter of fact about the notion that the rules, as they were in 2009, that Michael Bush would be restriced. This was due to the fact that while Bush had been in the league for four years that due to him spending the first year on the non football related injury list that he would only be credited for having three years of service.
Now who knows what the rules (no one, that's who) governing free agency will be when a new CBA is reached, but I have not heard of one scenario where players with just three years of service will be unrestricted free agents.
So, for all intensive purposes it really sounds like Michael Bush is going to be a Raider in 2011. The Raiders placed a first and third-round tender on Bush. And I feel confident in saying that no team is going to offer that for Bush. That is no slam on Bush, there are only a handful of players in the NFL that teams would do that for, and I'm not sure any running back would be on that list.
This is great news. Not only are the Raiders going to have Michael Bush for 2011, but they are going to have a supremely motivated Michael Bush. Bush is playing for what is probably his one chance at a contract that will set he and his family up for life.
So as Bush trains this offseason he is training with dollar signs in his eyes, and when Bush takes the field he is not going to run over helpless defenders just for the love of competition, but with the deep seated motivation of protecting his family.
Every person that attempts to tackle Michael Bush is not just trying to tackle him, but take money out of his, and his family's pocket. Good luck with that, defenders.
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