if I asked you who's the greatest running back in NFL history who would you say maybe EMT Smith with his most rushing yards ever maybe you value skill and Peak more and say Barry Sanders or maybe you're a touchdown guy and say LT well what if I told you a lot of people's opinions would be different if it wasn't for one specific play in 2004 the running back position is one of the most controversial positions in all of sports I mean you hear everything going on about it in the current state of the NFL where these players just want to be valued and paid correctly Josh Jacobs had over 2,000 yards from scrimmage 2 years ago and couldn't get a contract from the team that drafted him one of the best players in New York Giants history in saquin Barkley literally couldn't even get an offer from them and you see these type of situations with the top end running backs in the league time and time again well let me take you back to a time where the running back position was at an all-time high the 2000s in this time it felt like literally every team had a running back that could run for500 yards a year I mean just look at this list of running backs in 2005 Larry Johnson rushed for 1750 yards and scored 20 touchdowns and wasn't even First Team all proo Clinton poris had the fourth most rushing yards in the league and also scored 11 touchdowns and couldn't even make the Pro Bowl for crying out loud and just to further prove my point in 2004 and 5 there were 18,000 yard rushers in both of those Seasons if you were to combine the 2020 and 2021 a, yard rushers there would be 16 total I mean this is just simply a different time for the running back position we hear it all the time in today's NFL that the MVP is a Quarterback Award if you're not the quarterback on the best team in the league well good luck winning it but what if I told you from 2000 to 2009 three running backs won the MVP Faulk in 2000 Sean Alexander in ' 05 and Tomlinson the following year in ' 06 now with all these statistics and great names I've mentioned only one running back during the 2000s has one of the greatest Feats in NFL history and was named of three consecutive First Team all Pros a feat so impressive that it hasn't been done since and his name was Priest Holmes Holmes went undrafted in the Year 1997 by the Baltimore Ravens but was never utilized to his full potential in Four Seasons with the Ravens he would have a total of 459 carries that would put his average around 114 per year just so you know how low that total is in 2023 Deontay Foreman had 109 carries and only played in nine games and in 2000 after Just Four Seasons with the team the Ravens would go on to draft Jamal Lewis with the eighth overall pick to be their franchise running back and priest value to the team was diminished to nearly nothing after that in The Following Season Holmes would sign a massive deal at the time for a running back a 5-year deal worth around 11 million per year and let's just say he would waste no time asserting his dominance and would earn every penny of it you're going to have a hard time finding a running back to have a better stretch than hes did from 2001 to 2004 now I could just show you his stats at face value and tell you hey these yards and touchdowns are good but I'd rather this be a little more fun here's a graph that shows every running back to have 50 plus total touchdowns over a three-year stretch along with their games played leanian Tomlinson has the record at 69 while playing 16 games in all three seasons during gurley's primee he got himself 54 in 44 games Larry Johnson has the lowest total on this list but also has played the lowest games of anyone here but there's one thing all these running backs have in common and that's games played every single one of these players here has played at least 42 games except priest Holmes who only has three less touchdowns than the record holder and did it in 10 less games than him to put that into perspective CMC this past season scored a league High 21 touchdowns and set the record for most consecutive games with a touchdown in order for CMC to have a run similar to what Holmes did he would have to score at least two touchdowns in all 17 games next year and then keep that up for the first seven games of The Following Season as well dominance is an understatement to how priest performed during this stretch and I'll show you exactly why from 01 to 04 Holmes did something only eight running backs have done in NFL history over this fouryear stretch Holmes would average 101 rushing yards per game and here's every running back to do such a thing Barry Sanders Eric Dickerson Walter pton Terrell Davis Adrien Peterson EMT Smith Derrik Henry and Shawn Alexander but this isn't the only ridiculous feat Holmes had he also had three 2,000 total yard seasons which only five running backs have done and maybe his wildest stat yet Holmes also had two 20 touchdown Seasons backto back so from 01 to 04 Holmes averaged 101 rushing yards per game had 3 2,000 yards from scrimmage years and also had 20 touchdowns in back-to-back years and here's a list of every running back to do such a thing oh wait there isn't because priest Holmes is truly a one of one a player that when undrafted was underutilized by his first team and didn't get a real opportunity until he was 28 years old went on a 4-year stretch that literally no running back has ever matched in NFL history and to finish out just how ridiculous this run was Priest Holmes suffered a spinal injury in 2004 that would unfortunately be the downfall of his career in that 2004 season Holmes played eight games and here are his stats from that time 196 carries 1,79 total yards and 15 total touchdowns now let's try to speculate how this year would have went if Holmes had stayed healthy for just this final year Holmes was averaging 134.5 total yards per game and 1.7 total touchdowns per game but instead of taking the easy way out and taking everything Holmes did in those first eight games and multiply that by two let's say he slumps a little bit in the second half his total yards per game goes from from 134.5 to 118 his touchdowns go from nearly two a game at 1.7 to just one what would his numbers have looked like if he finished a season out like this well Holmes would have had another 20 touchdown season and another 2000 total yard season four straight years of 2K yards and three straight of 20 total touchdowns and when I say this would have truly been the greatest stretch we would have ever seen from any player in NFL history I mean it no other running back no wide receiver not even a quarterback in NFL history has matched this type of dominance for four consecutive years now in my personal opinion does priest Holmes deserve a spot in the Hall of Fame you know it's tough to say his Peak was one of the greatest of all times and there's a lot of players who are currently in the Hall of Fame and have done a lot less for the game but neither here nor there I just wanted to give my flowers to one of the greatest to ever do it and one of the many players in NFL history who unfortunately got their career cut short due to injury hope everyone who watched this video learned something and also enjoyed thanks for watching I'm out peace
