Whitlocks take on the subject......I just happen to agree.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/s...fs/12502903.htm
Priest still No. 1, but L.J. must play
JASON WHITLOCK
Larry Johnson has to play.
It has nothing to do with Priest Holmes. It’s simply acknowledgment that in three preseason games, L.J. has proved that his performance at the end of last year wasn’t a fluke.
L.J., to quote an old football coach, is the real deal. He has to play.
Priest Holmes, of course, has to play, too. He’s still the Chiefs’ best running back. He’s still the starter. It’s just now he’s going to have to share some of his touches with Johnson. This isn’t debatable.
It doesn’t matter how perfectly blocked and how poorly defended L.J.’s 97-yard run was against Seattle. No one caught Johnson. No one came close to catching Johnson. He ripped down the middle of an NFL field untouched for 97 yards.
You don’t stand on the sideline collecting dust when you can race 97 yards on a football field untouched. The NFL is all about big plays and the playmakers who create them.
Holmes is a dynamic playmaker, but he can’t run 97 yards untouched. L.J. gives Kansas City’s ground attack an extra dimension, a dimension KC’s receiver-starved offense desperately needs.
Holmes is relentless and consistent, a pass-catching, smaller version of the Bus. L.J. is starting to look like Midwest Airlines, the great little secret no one expected to hang around.
**** Vermeil and Al Saunders need to figure out how the Chiefs can travel by bus and plane. No one should try to turn this into a Holmes vs. Johnson situation, and I’m mostly talking about Holmes or Johnson turning it into that.
They should both play, and they should both accept that it’s in the best interest of the team that they both play. No pouting. No complaints about being unable to establish a rhythm.
If Vermeil and Saunders planned on an 85-15 running split between Holmes and Johnson, the coaches should now formulate a 60-40 plan. Johnson deserves 40 percent of the touches. If the Chiefs run the ball 30 times, Holmes carries it 16 times, Johnson 12 and fullback Tony Richardson or receiver Dante Hall get the two other carries.
I realize just three weeks ago I dissed my friend Jimmy Dodds in this column for even suggesting that L.J. could earn playing time in the preseason. I stand corrected. I never anticipated L.J. looking this good, this confident, this determined.
No one could have anticipated Johnson running this hard. He looks 50 percent better than he did at the end of last year. He looks like a totally different back.
Can running back by committee work?
Yes, last year the Rams used Marshall Faulk and Steven Jackson effectively. On the flip, the Bills had to separate Travis Henry and Willis McGahee because neither players’ ego would tolerate splitting carries. Henry and McGahee are both young and in their prime.
Holmes will be 32 by the end of this season. If Johnson continues to develop, Holmes becomes expendable. His age and history of injuries diminish his trade value and make Johnson untradable.
Ego is the unpredictable element in all of this. Will Holmes welcome Johnson into the running rotation? If Holmes won’t, will Vermeil and Saunders risk upsetting Holmes by giving L.J. carries anyway? They must. L.J. has to play.