Will Chiefs Records Be Broken?

From the FanPosts -Joel

This lockout has been driving us crazy!

No really, it has. It’s been driving me and you both crazy. You may think you feel fine, but you’re not. I’m telling you, whether you notice it or not, this lockout has been driving you crazy.

It has probably been making you do things you normally don’t do. I’ll offer up my brother, Nick (username KcChiefsMo here on AP), as a prime example. In fact, he’s actually the inspiration behind this post.

Lately, he’s been a little… bored. It’s no secret. Usually around this time of the year, Nick and I are in full football mode. The Royals, like every year, are pretty much done for the season, so we have nothing else really to look forward to. I, personally, still have plenty of soccer to watch being a huge fan of Sporting Kansas City (the Wizards to those who still aren’t familiar with the name change).

Nick on the other hand is not a soccer fan by any means, so right now he’s pretty much a lost soul. Lately I’ve seen him constantly watch TV shows like One Tree Hill and The Bachelorette. Of course, the decision to watch these shows is influenced by the wife, but he doesn’t even put up a fight anymore.

About a month ago I went over to Nick’s house, and he was watching the National Spelling Bee. And not the half-assed kind of watching either, where he lays on the couch half asleep and glances over every now and then. Nope, his attention was in full, one hundred percent viewing mode on this.

And lately, the media is doing a tremendous job of teasing us right now, with numerous reports of a deal “cutting close” and being “within weeks” of wrapping up.

So the past week Nick has been looking up random statistics in anticipation of the season. He has been on a kick of determining just how many yards Jamaal Charles needs to reach Priest Holmes as the all-time leading rusher, or how many touchdowns Dwayne Bowe will need to reach Tony Gonzalez’s touchdown record. So today I told Nick that I would make a post to keep him entertained. Hopefully, Nick, this post will hold you over until the lockout ends.

So, let us begin with Jamaal Charles. As of now, Jamaal has 2,944 rushing yards with the Kansas City Chiefs. This puts him at ninth place among KC rushing leaders, behind Priest Holmes (6070), Larry Johnson (6015), Christian Okoye (4897), Ed Podolak (4451), Abner Haynes (3814), Marcus Allen (3698), Mike Garrett (3246), and Curtis McClinton (3124). That puts Jamaal 3,126 rushing yards behind Priest Holmes. If Charles wants to reach Priest, there are several ways he can do it.

1) In the next four seasons, if Jamaal can rush for 781.5 yards per season, he will reach Priest as the all-time leading rusher for the Chiefs.

2) In the next three seasons, Jamaal needs 1,042 rushing yards per season to reach Priest.

3) In the next two seasons, Jamaal would need 1,563 rushing yards per season.

In my opinion, numbers 1 and 2 seem highly probable the way Jamaal has been for us the past two seasons. Number 3 is still very likely to happen, but it depends if Todd Haley decides to limit Jamaal’s carries like he did in 2010. If Jamaal can stay healthy though, he will be our feature back for years to come and inevitably will reach Priest Holmes as KC’s all-time leading rusher.

Touchdowns, though, seem highly unlikely. Jamaal Charles has only 12 career rushing touchdowns opposed to Priest’s 76 with the Chiefs.  To get 64 more touchdowns, Jamaal would need 10-11 touchdowns per season in six seasons with the Chiefs. As long as Jamaal is sharing a large amount of carries with another back, I’m not sure if I can see this happening.

Let’s move on to Dwayne Bowe. D-Bowe has a total of 3,768 receiving yards for the Chiefs. This puts him at eighth place, behind Tony Gonzalez (10,940), Otis Taylor (7306), Henry Marshall (6545), Carlos Carson (6360), Stephone Paige (6341), Chris Burford (5505), and Eddie Kennison (5230).

To reach Tony G, Bowe has a long way to go to reach him, needing 7,172 receiving yards. For Dwayne to reach Tony, it comes down to how long he will remain in Kansas City. Some believe that Jonathon Baldwin was drafted to replace D Bowe once he becomes a free agent; however, I believe that to be untrue because we’d pretty much be in the same spot that we were before drafting Baldwin.

With that being said, let’s say D Bowe does stay with us. To reach Tony he’ll need to get 1,196 receiving yards each season for the next six seasons. With his breakout performance this past season (1,162 yards), this seems likely for maybe the next few seasons, but the judge is out there whether he can continue to be a Pro-Bowl caliber player for many years to come.

I’m not sure if I see Dwayne reaching Tony G’s receiving record, but I do think he can reach second place, surpassing Otis Taylor, if he remains in KC. D Bowe needs 3,538 more yards to reach Otis Taylor, which averages to be 884.5 yards per season for four seasons, or 707.6 yards per season for five seasons.

However, maybe Dwayne Bowe can reach Tony G’s receiving touchdown record of 76 touchdowns. Bowe has 31 receiving touchdowns, so to get 45 more touchdowns to reach Tony’s record, Bowe will need 11-12 TD’s per season for four seasons, 9 TD’s per season for five seasons, or 7-8 TD’s per season for six seasons. After 2010, if Bowe stays in KC, this feat seems a little more plausible.

While this post took some simple math and just a little bit of research on pro-football-reference.com, it definitely gets you thinking about the future of some of our best players here in Kansas City. This post also shows you just how bored a sports fan like me can get when a lockout is still in progress.