TEMPE, Ariz. -- Running back Michael Bush and linebacker Thomas Keiser had more in common Sunday than the fact that both were attending the NFL veteran combine in Tempe.
Both were signed as free agents and then cut by the Arizona Cardinals last season.
Since Arizona was the most recent stop for both players, the memories of practicing at the Cardinals’ facility, which was where the combine was held, were still relatively fresh. For Keiser, it’s been almost five months since he was released. For Bush, it's been almost four.
“I’ll just say at this point, [it’s a] feeling of indifference,” Keiser said. “It ended a little strangely.
“For whatever reason, things didn’t work out.”
He had two tackles in three games for Arizona but was on the roster for the first 10 weeks of the season.
Bush was on the Cardinals' roster for 10 days and finished his stint in Arizona without a stat line.
He was signed on Nov. 25, five days before starting running back Andre Ellington was lost for the season because of a battery of injuries. The last, a hip pointer, was suffered in Week 13 in Atlanta. Bush claimed he took “all” of Arizona’s first-team reps on the Wednesday following Ellington’s injury on Nov. 30. But the next day “not so many reps.” And by that Friday, Bush said he was on scout team seeing “a few plays” before he was released later that day.
“I thought I was going to be the guy,” Bush said. “And you’re talking about as happy as you don’t know what. And living out here, I’m like, ‘Yo, this is perfect for me.’ And, man, another gut punch.”
Both had another shot to show the Cardinals, who had a handful of scouts at the combine, that they were worthy of being re-signed. Though Keiser could be a possibility, especially with the Cardinals in need of pass-rushers and with their roster swelling to 90 men during the offseason, it’s highly unlikely Bush will be reconsidered.
“Toughest guys always bounce back,” Bush said. “I’m ready.”
