Comparing 3 Great RB Seasons: 2003 Priest Holmes vs. 2005 Shaun Alexander vs. 2006 LaDainian Tomlinson

2005 Shaun Alexander vs. 2006 Ladainian Tomlinson vs. 2003 Priest Holmes
Right when we thought Shaun Alexander and Priest Holmes put a solid hold on the Rushing Touchdown stat in 2005, Ladainian Tomlinson proved us all wrong, beating out Shaun and Priest by 1 Touchdown and doing so with pride. Who was more efficient, who was more successful, who was more important to their team? There are a ton of questions that need to be answered.

Basic Stats Priest Holmes:
320 Rushing Attempts
1,420 Rushing Yards
27 Rushing Touchdowns
1 Fumbles

Basic Stats Shaun Alexander:
370 Rushing Attempts
1,892 Rushing Yards
27 Rushing Touchdowns
5 Fumbles

Basic Stats Ladainian Tomlinson:
348 Rushing Attempts
1,815 Rushing Yards
28 Rushing Touchdowns
2 Fumbles

Taking a peek at a small sample of what the RunningBacks LaDainian gets the upper edge, but there is alot more than basic stats that need to be accounted for.

Most Important is the Offensive Line play. Here are how the Players offensive lines played to keep giving the RunningBacks nice open holes to run through.

Stats I will be taking into account:
10+ Yards: Percentage of a team's rushing yards more than 10 yards past the line of scrimmage. Represents yardage not reflected in Adjusted Line Yards stat.
Power success: Percentage of runs on third or fourth down, two yards or less to go, that achieved a first down or touchdown. Also includes runs on first-and-goal or second-and-goal from the two-yard line or closer. This is the only statistic on this page that includes quarterbacks.
Stuffed: Percentage of runs where the running back is tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage. Since being stuffed is bad, teams are ranked from stuffed least often (1) to most often (32).

Since both Runningbacks had superior talent themselves, they relyed on their offensive lines to make them even better. Taking that into account Power Success and Stuffed would be the most important stats, because those are where the offensive line has to do the most work. 10+ Yards is really more of the runningbacks skills because how often does the Offensive line run down the field 10 or more yards? Not that often. Especially with how fast these two RB's were.

Kansas City Cheifs 2003 Offensive Line
10+ Yards: 14% Ranked 22nd in NFL
Power Success: 67% Ranked 14th in the NFL
Stuffed: 23% Ranked 10th in the NFL

So we can tell from those stats that
A: The line was good, and above average, but it wasn't great
B: They didn't push forward for many big yardage plays, and converted 2 of 3 short yardage plays
C: They hardly never allowed defenders into the backfield before the runner was past the LOS
D: The Chiefs offensive line was made up of 2 Pro Bowlers, Willie Roaf and Will Shields, both were aging and weren't in their prime anymore but they got the job done

Offensive Line Grade: B-

Seattle Seahawks 2005 Offensive Line
10+ Yards: 25% Ranked 2nd in NFL
Power Success: 81% Ranked 1st in NFL
Stuffed: 21% Ranked 25th in NFL

So we can tell from those stats that
A: Shaun Alexander broke alot of big runs and his offensive line was able to make gaping holes
B: The Seahawks offensive line was able to propel forward and get small yardage gains for 1st downs
C: 1 out of 5 handoffs Shaun Alexander or other RB's got went for 0 or -1 yards. Meaning they weren't always able to stabilize the run game
D: Shaun's offensive line was made up of 3 Pro Bowlers, all of them were in their prime. Steve Hutchinson, Walter Jones, and Robbie Tobeck.

Offensive Line Grade: A-

San Diego Chargers 2006 Offensive Line
10+ Yards: 29% Ranked 1st in NFL
Power Success: 73% Ranked 4th in NFL
Stuffed: 13% Ranked 1st in NFL

So we can tell from those stats that
A: Ladainian Tomlinson was able to find the holes the offensive line made and nearly 30% of the teams rushing yards were for 10 yards or more
B: The Chargers offensive line wasn't as strong as the Seahawks, but they got the job done.
C: The San Diego Chargers offensive line gave LT time to find the hole, and only 1 out of 10 times a run play resulted in a loss of yards.
D: LT's offensive line was made up of 2 Pro Bowlers, one was a rookie and the other one was good, but not great


Offensive Line Grade: B+

Feel free to argue the grades I gave them, but the Chargers were in the top 4 for every offensive line statistic possible, while the Seahawks were only strong at certain points.

Now that we know that LT had the better offensive line, comparing the stats should be easier.

Per 100 Attempts
Priest Holmes:
443 Rushing Yards
8.5 Rushing Touchdowns
.31 Fumbles

Shaun Alexander:
511 Rushing Yards
7 Rushing Touchdowns
1 Fumble

Ladainian Tomlinson:
521 Rushing Yards
8 Rushing Touchdowns
.60 Fumbles

Ladainian and Priest had less attempts, so they came out on top at the per 100 attempts category, each winning given categories.. but not by much.

Now for my favorite part.... The ADVANCED Stats.
"Running backs are ranked according to DYAR, or Defense-adjusted Yards Above Replacement. This gives the value of the performance on plays where this RB carried/caught the ball compared to replacement level, adjusted for situation and opponent and then translated into yardage"
"The next statistic given is DVOA, or Defense-adjusted Value Over Average. This number represents value, per play, over an average quarterback in the same game situations. The more positive the DVOA rating, the better the player's performance. Negative DVOA represents below-average offense."

Information from footballoutsiders.com

Priest Holmes 2003 Advanced Stats
DYAR: 480
DVOA: 24.8%
Shaun Alexander 2005 Advanced Stats
DYAR: 449
DVOA: 19.3%
Ladainian Tomlinson 2006 Advanced Stats
DYAR: 453
DVOA: 23.4%

So. Priest came out on touchdowns, fumbles, advanced stats, and he had the worst offensive line out of all three?

Overall Ladainian and Priest were better than Shaun Alexander.
BUT. In my opinion, had Priest been given Shaun's offensive line to play behind, he would have been much better.