Peter King
Publication: Sports Illustrated
Date: September 2, 2002
Assume, for the sake of the Chiefs’ prospects this season, that tight end Tony Gonzalez will end his holdout sometime in September. His 80 or so catches are vital to the offense. Either Gonzalez will give up his dream to play in the NBA and sign along-term contract with Kansas City, or he’ll sign the one-year,$3.05 million offer the team has on the table. It’s hard to imagine the man turning down at least $180,000 every Sunday.
Assume, also, that Trent Green won’t be the mistake-prone quarterback he was a year ago, when he was coming off major knee surgery. Green had never turned the ball over much until last year, when he led the league with 24 interceptions. But that was after he had barely worked out with his new mates in the 2001 off-season. “I had some problems with accuracy,” he says, “and that came from not making the throws in mini camps and training camp. I’m so much healthier this year.”
Assume, too, that the offensive line–even with new left tackle Willie Roaf hobbling through camp as he recovers from October 2001 knee surgery and John Tait struggling to play right tackle for the first time in his career–will hold up. The interior line,led by Pro Bowl guard Will Shields, remains a strength.
If Gonzalez, Green and the line do their parts, then the question about the Kansas City offense comes down to this: Can Priest Holmes repeat his 2001 performance–2,169 total rushing and receiving yards–or was it a fluke?
Only Marshall Faulk had more yards from scrimmage last year than Holmes, who, with 1,555 yards on the ground, became the first undrafted player in 47 years to win a league rushing crown.Holmes wasn’t drafted out of Texas five years ago because he was thought to be too small and too slow. But at 5’9″ and 213 pounds he showed the strength to plow inside and the quickness to get around the corner. He was surprisingly hard to tackle, as was evident when he rushed for 150 yards against Pittsburgh, which had the NFL’s best run defense.
