Quote:
Originally Posted by Chiefspants
Yeah, I keep hearing this - but I’ve yet to see it demonstrated statistically other than “the eye test” or the “37 ppg” number that’s thrown out. Kareem had home run potential catching passes (a lot of secondaries just were not up to bring him down) - but to say Kareem was far better for the offense doesn’t hold water to me. The only analysis comparing the two I’ve seen on this came from Baldy’s breakdowns who pretty much concluded that Chiefs fans were overestimating Kareem through nostalgia. I think that nostalgia may be going on around these parts a bit too.
I’m not discounting Kareem either, trust me. I’m a Royals fan, a team who made back to back trips to the WS despite a lot of “analytics people” chalking it up to luck. It’s possible Kareem’s contributions went way further than Damien’s - I just have yet to see that reflected statistically or in results from the team.
|
Stats are not the end-all/be-all for measuring a player's value/capabilities.
For instance, Most people would say that Barry Sanders is the best RB or in the top 3 RBs of all time. And yet he fumbled more than Shady per season. In fact he averaged almost 4 fumbles/season. As a matter of fact, when you look at the top 5 RBs of all time, which includes not only Sanders, but also the likes of Walter Payton, and Emmit Smith, McCoy has been far better at holding onto the football than any of them.
And Shady has been far and away a better receiver out of the backfield than Barry. And Shady has had far less negative yardage plays.
Do these stats make Shady better than Barry? No, of course not. There is no argument for Shady being better than Barry. "But the stats!" Yeah, well, as I keep saying, stats only tell a part of the story. The "eye test" between the two alone tells you that Barry was in a different zip code than Shady. And that's not to take anything at all away from LeSean; Barry was simply the MJ of RBs.
Now, I'm not saying Kareem is Barry Sanders; let's not go down that stupid rabbit hole either. It was just an example that everybody could understand.
So when we're talking about comparing Damien and Kareem, it's not about TDs or yards/carry. Those are nice metrics but they don't adequately explain what Kareem was worth to the Chiefs.
The fact of the matter is that Kareem was a better pass-catcher, better pass protector, has better change-of-direction, better vision, more burst, runs with more violence, and possesses better situational awareness than Damien, period. And every opposing DC knew that part of the equation was that they had to account for
Kareem Hunt.
They don't think that way about Damien. That's not to malign Damien; these are just the facts. Anyone can watch either play and understand this.