Priest Holmes - NFL Deep Dive
 

So, since Priest is going to be banging the drum this weekend, I thought I would share this video from my phone.

I think if Darrell Williams scores a rushing TD on Sunday, he is should honor Holmes by doing the Priest Slide into the end zone.

https://youtu.be/ufKojy1du6g

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PH should be in the HOF. Best of his era.

Nice post.

Always loved watching him play.

Amazing.

They should show that video to the HOF committee.

1) It's easy to forget how good Priest was. We basically took him and that offense for granted back then for how they kept us in games and covered up how awful those defenses were

B) Carl Peterson was a goddamned ego maniac and an asshole

Priest Freaking Holmes, a true Chiefs Legend. He was so fun to watch play.

I do not know if he has the stats to make it in the Hall of Fame but I will say that it is bullshit Terrell Davis got in mainly because of his Superbowl wins

That was a fun [re]watch. Priest will always be one of my all time favorite Chiefs.

Priest was fantastic. I remember when FFL really started to blow up during that time, and I was living in CoMo with a bunch of Chiefs/Rams fans. It was always fun fighting over who was gonna draft Priest and Faulk.

I was kinda upset when my grandma bought me a PH jersey that draped like a dress when I was so young.. now I'm thankful since I can still wear it!

Thanks for the video.
That brought back a lot of great memories.
Priest "freaking" Holmes!

A signed Holmes jersey has been my game day attire for the past 3 years. It's got a pretty good record.

It was cool, but also depressing. All that talent and they still didn't win a goddamn thing. :banghead:

Yeah, while watching it I was just trying to focus on his individual achievements and block out the rest of it. I would have bet the house we were SB bound in 2003 (thankfully I didn't have a house to bet). And the video left out Priest's only fumble of the season in that playoff loss. It was (is) hard to be mad at him when he put up a historic season with only the one fumble. But that one and only fumble came at the worst possible time.

Ultimately though - ****ing _efense. There was absolutely no reason he, nor the rest of the offense should have had to have been the epitome of perfection. One. ****ing. Stop. :#

I think if we'd faced anybody else in the playoffs that year but those hellspawn Colts we'd have advanced. They were the only team capable of going punch for punch with us.

Priest and that offensive line trich jasons dunn where fit each other

1. Priest was great, but holy crap that line was insane. Look at T Rich getting out in front way down the field. How many times did Holmes have multiple blockers in front? He was a master at setting up and using those blocks, but he did have a lot of help.

2. The Chiefs early '00s offense was a testament to front office success in free agency and trades. They assembled a roster of guys other teams moved on from and turned them into an all-time great offense. Trent Green and Willie Roaf came in trades. T Rich was an undrafted rookie FA. Veteran FAs were Priest Holmes, Jonnie Morton, and Casey Weigmann. Eddie Kennison and Brian Waters were waived by other teams. The only draft picks were, Tony G., Will Shields, and John Tait

3. The plan was to draft a defense to go with the offense. The strategy was fine. D players tend to develop faster than on offense, and a young, fast, physical defense flying around should have been enough with that offense The problem was execution.

4. Peterson's failure came down to two huge draft blunders: Ryan Sims instead of John Henderson in 2002 and Larry Johnson instead of Troy Polamalu in 2003.

Larry Johnson is 3rd all time rushing in chiefs history spock

They always refer to that as the No Punt Game, but we actually forged a punt, but were called for a 5 yard penalty (5 yards I think, but either way) to give them the 1st down.

When Hall broke free on that kick return for a TD, Arrowhead was louder than I have ever heard it. I was in the lower bowl, about the 45 yard line, about 13 rows up, and I could feel the concrete shaking.

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He is still one of only 3 backs in NFL history to have back to back seasons of 1700+ rushing yards.

Then the offensive line was decimated and became incompetent. Johnson would often get hit behind the LOS, and people blamed him because he acted out on the field in frustration. His off the field stuff was all on him though.

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Pretty much.

Oh yeah, the place was literally rocking. And as loud as we were we just could not bring about a false start. As much as I hate to give any kind of credit to those cocks, I am still impressed with that OLine that day.

Love Holmes. Fun era of Chiefs offense. However, it still makes me cringe thinking about that 2003 playoff game.

In a game where nobody punted, the one change of possession was when Priest broke free on a 50+ yard run but was caught from behind and fumbled, giving the Colts the one additional possession they needed to beat us by one score. Ugh.

Nothing wrong with the pick, per se. Larry Johnson was a stud. And, yes, he was ruined by Herm Edwards overusing him and the decline of the o line.

However, it was poor overall strategy given the needs of the team at the time. That squad desperately needed defense and was in win-now mode.

Thanks for that link. Priest was the engine and his running ability was off the charts

Thanks for posting this. I loved all of those old TV and radio calls (a lot of great announcers there), and I really loved watching Priest run behind T-Rich and that amazing OLine.

I have a trivia question, and I don't remember the answer.

I recall that we signed Priest in part because we signed some other player from the Ravens, and Dick asked him about other free agents. The guy raved about Priest Holmes.

Who was that player? I'm looking at the roster and I don't see a guy that jumps out at me as a former Raven.

https://www.pro-football-reference.c...001_roster.htm

Derrick Alexander is a former Raven. Was it him? He overlapped one season with Priest, but it was three years before we signed Priest. It could have been Jeff Blackshear, too, because he was with the Chiefs in 2000 and the Ravens in 1999. I bet it was Blackshear.

Suggs

I think the Chiefs had one of the Ravens restricted free agents in, but they didn't sign him. I'm thinking it was Lional Dalton, whom the Chiefs later signed in 03 or 04.

He was brought in to be the team chaplain. They had no idea he could also play offense.

It looks like you don't want to see Lional Dalton pulling into your business's parking lot. (This is five years old, so I wonder what happened with these.)

https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/new...cember-7690543

Priest has paid a heavy price for the mileage the Chiefs put on him.
https://joeposnanski.substack.com/p/ignore-the-pain

The next morning, I got emails. I always got emails on Mondays after Chiefs games, but these were different. This is why I will never forget the game.

The people behind the emails wanted me to shut the hell up about Priest Holmes’ pain.

I couldn’t believe it at first. I mean, sure, you can and will get random emails from people saying crazy things. But these just kept coming, a dozen of them, then a few more, and they had the same rhythm, the same vibe, often the same words.

They didn’t want to hear that Priest Holmes was hurting.

They were sure that Priest Holmes wasn’t REALLY hurting.

They wanted me to know that Priest Holmes got paid a lot of money to play football.

They raged at me that I had exaggerated Holmes’ pain to sell papers (?).

There was a desperation to those emails, something I couldn’t quite understand. In the end it was a small number of people, but I still read each note with wide-eyed astonishment; I had always come to associate Kansas City with humanity, and I still do. But these were angry people. And why were they angry? They had woken up on a Monday morning excited to read about the Chiefs’ victory over the Buffalo Bills and instead found themselves reading about how Priest Holmes had given up days, weeks, months, perhaps years of his life for the victory.

They didn’t want to read that.

Who knew he was also a deep diver?

Only one RB has done this since Priest. Can you name him?

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqOL2RjW...png&name=small

Has to be Ladainian Tomlinson. He was just as productive as Priest around that time. Probably like 2004-2006.

Todd Gurley? Adrian Peterson?

That would be my guess.

If not him, then maybe Adrian Peterson.

Nope nope nope

Tiki Barber?

I was wrong. LT eclipsed 2000 scrimmage yards in 02, 03 and 06.

It’s not Adrian Peterson, Gurley, Leveon Bell, Lesean McCoy, Marshawn Lynch, Saquon Barkley, Christian McCaffery, Derrick Henry, Marshawn Lynch.. I even looked up forgotten guys like Arian Foster, Matt Forte.

I’m stumped..

winner

and then he promptly retired

priest had 04, 05 and 07

Probably someone like Chris Johnson or David Johnson?

This record still stands.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GqOoGJBW...jpg&name=large

Dang. I would have guessed Tiki Barber after I'd guessed every other starting running back in the league at that time.

You could also give Holmes 53 TDs in 31 games during this stretch, counting postseason.

LT needed 32 to get 51.

My favorite Chiefs RB. His personality was strange for some but he was a special player.

Priest was good, but he greatly benefitted from the talent surrounding him. Not only did he have one of the best OLs ever assembled he had an insanely good blocking FB and then Jason Dunn at TE to block. Just the absolute best scenario a RB could ask for.

Probably one of the most overrated running backs in NFL history. Similar to Emmett Smith everything was set up for him. He had one of the best offensive lines of the last 30 years.

Im not saying he is bad but he would have been just a guy on most NFL teams.

HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY!!!!!!!!

He was on pace to score 83 TDs in three seasons in 2004 before the Bucs ended him.

Special player.

You put me behind the Nebraska Cornhusker 1990s offensive lines I get 5.5 yards per carry.

But not 51 TD in 30 games.

Special.

Kareem Hunt would have got 61.

Did LJ?

Mainly a different coach wasn't it?

I'm gonna kick you're ass

Bitch Ill fkn come over to your house and mow your yard when you aint around

Cash me ousside

2 yrs under Vermeil

I scored 977 TDs with him on Tecmo Bowl.

I think you are right after all.

I remember him running for like 300 yards against Vermeil's defense as Kawika Mitchell and Sammy Knight missed tackle after tackle.

Paint the house while you're at it. And then get ready for a big punch

Now that is a serious THREAT!!!!!

Tony Richardson is underrated. I was looking into his career not too long ago and he blocked for Priest Holmes and Larry Johnson here, went to Minnesota where he blocked for a 1,000+ yard back (can’t think of his name) in 2006 then Adrian Peterson in 2007, then went to New York where he blocked for Thomas Jones with the Jets (1,300 yards in 2008 then 1,400 yards in 2009).

There was nearly a solid decade where he was paving the way for 1,000 yard backs every single year.

Agreed. It’s funny now, but he was actually the starting back in 2001 for the first few games before Vermeil knew what he had.

Priest is probably THE reason I'm a Chiefs fan today.

I find it really sad that all anyone has to say about him is he was "the guy behind the greatest O-Line ever assembled". Dude was special.

Yep, I remember those days. We had a run of some very mediocre backs in the late 90s, early 00s. Greg Hill, Kimble Anders, Donnell Bennet, Bam Morris, etc.

I'd also argue, and this might seem off base but ill say it anyway, that after DT passed away, the Chiefs didn't really have an iconic player to follow until Priest came along. After that it was probably Jamaal during the really dark days.

Priest was an important part of Chiefs history that the next generation of fans looked up to.

I may be mixing up Tony Richardson and Kimble Anders, but didn't Tony get a start at the end of a season and run for 150 yards or something, and on the sidelines Carl Peterson told him he was going to be the starter at running back next year? And then next year came and he never got a chance? (In fairness to Carl, maybe that was when Priest arrived.)

I think that was Tony who didn't get the chance. I think Kimble had a similar story, but he actually was named the starter as the feature back and then blew out an achilles in his first game.

Can anyone confirm or refute my memory on this?

Put Jamaal behind that online and he breaks the single season rushing record. He'd be a no doubt HOFer. Probably would have gotten 2 more healthy years out of him, because he'd never be touched.

**** I hate that Jamaal couldn't have been just a few years younger. Imagine if he was a rookie with Mahomes. We would be unstoppable.

He was absolutely incredible.

The timelines blur for me over the years. I always think of Tony G and DT being in the same era, but they only played together for a handful of seasons. But somewhere in there, I might think that Tony was our iconic player.

Richardson had a 156 yard game in week 16 against Denver in 2000. He def was not the starter the next year.

Yeah, that's exactly what I'm remembering.

But didn't Kimble Anders have a very similar story arc, but with a tragic ending the next season?

I think Kimble Anders had a big game and tore his Achilles at the same time? That was 98 or 99 era I think?

Yeah, it's possible that he was named the starter at the very end of the season and then tore his achilles in that first game. I just remember him playing well in a surprise feature role and being named the starter, and then he had a tragic non-contact injury immediately afterwards.

Or I guess it could have been at the end of his breakout game, too. I just remember it happening immediately after I thought he could be a successful feature back for us.

There was a documentary in the mid 2ks maybe 2k5 called beyond the glory Priest homes. It was ****ing badass.

That sounds right. TG was probably our most fun player until we had assembled the 02-03 team.

So one of the top searches comes back to you old ****ers talking about it when I was in the 8th grade.

https://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showthread.php?t=99445

I don't think so. Maybe the numbers wouldn't have been as dominant, but Priest would be great behind any line because he was such a smart runner and had a nose for the end zone or 1st down marker.

You didn't see Donnell Bennett or Greg Hill put up those numbers in the 90s playing behind elite Chiefs lines.

Jamaal was special. Great vision, speed, and moves, and was a terrific receiving back as well. It's a shame he chose to play in Denver instead of retiring as the NFL's #1 in YPC.

He fumbled a lot but that negative was greatly outweighed by all his positives.

Priest did have elite vision and patience, for sure.

Started in the Superbowl as well with the ravens