Players In Focus: Josh Bush

Continuing our look at the new Jets, this time we turn our attention to the defensive side of the ball and our first safety selection, Josh Bush out of Wake Forrest. Josh is a free safety with corner cover skills, he is smart and productive and comes across as a prototypical Rex Ryan safety. He compliments our other safety selection Antonio Allen nicely and also what we have on the roster at the minute in LaRon Landry and Eric Smith. I don't think he'll come in and blow the roof off the facility, but he will work well on specials and move into a role with the Jets defence going forward, at least in my opinion. So lets take a look back at Josh's career to date.

Born in Lexington North Carolina, Josh attended West Davidson high school playing both quarterback/wide receiver and safety. A gifted athlete who was an all conference selection in football and baseball. He was voted the Davidson county defensive player of the year in 2006 after picking off six passes his senior season. As a sophmore in high school, Josh tore his ACL. However he managed to play through the injury and rehab in the summer, which shows the kind of toughness he has.

Despite being an impressive athlete on both the offensive and defensive side of the ball, and being a baseball standout. Josh was lightly recruited going into college as a 2 star cornerback recruit. He quickly realised the best situation for himself and chose Wake Forest over Appalachian State, East Carolina, James Madison and North Carolina. At the time he was considered a sleeper recruit. In 2007 while adjusting to college life, he redshirted his freshman year.

In 2008 he worked his way through special teams playing on the punt return, punt coverage and kickoff coverage teams. Appearing in 13 games, mostly on special teams but seeing some action as a defensive back. In 2009 he moved over to free safety and made 5 starts, the crowning moment being a pass he intercepted from Russell Wilson to end WIlson's NCAA record streak of 379 pass attempts without an interception.

In 2010 the Wake Forrest defence was shredded through the air, it highlighted a lack of overall talent and Josh actually moved back to cornerback. In 2011 he enjoyed his most productive season, with more talent across the secondary in ACC defensive rookie of the year CB Merrill Noel, and safey Cyhl Quarles. It allowed Josh to play his natural game, ball hawking. He brought down 6 interceptions, 56 tackles and 5 pass break-ups. Named an all ACC first team selection, he was noted for his ability to read the offence and communicate effectively at the back.

My concern with Josh is that he always seems to miss time through injury at some point during the season, in college it was mostly shoulder and hamstring injuries. In high school, obviously there was the ACL issue. Coming into a physical league like the NFL, he will need to show his ability to stay healthy.

Welcome to the New York Jets Josh