His Day: Damon Huard

Trent Green is down. The Chiefs need help. Up steps career backup Damon Huard to have a game better than anybody could've predicted.

If I asked you which QB was the owner of the best game in Kansas City Chiefs history, who would you tell me?

In reality, there's many choices. The most likely two would be either Trent Green or Patrick Mahomes, who are by far the best two QBs the Chiefs have ever had. Alex Smith had some great games in a Chiefs uniform. People really tuned in could perhaps remember the epic game Matt Cassel had against the Texans in 2010. The real old heads would perhaps name Len Dawson's best game as a contender here, if they were interested in era-adjusting.

All of these would be great guesses, and I wouldn't fault you for making them. Most of the time, a franchise's best QBs are the owners of their best games (Philip Rivers for San Diego, Tom Brady for the Patriots, Lamar Jackson for the Ravens, etc.). For the Chiefs however, this statement is not true.

Their best game ever was thrown by a career backup named Damon Huard.

Damon Huard was a star quarterback at the university of Washington (who've been known to produce great NFL QBs), but went undrafted in the 1996 NFL Draft. This rejection shocked Huard, who was not expected to go undrafted. After all, he fit the mold of an NFL QB (being a six foot three inch white guy with a fairly good arm).

After failing to catch on anywhere as an undrafted free agent in the 1996 offseason, Huard was reduced to working for the Seahawks in a non-football capacity lobbying the local public for a new stadium. Perhaps having the local college star on board helped efforts, as that stadium was eventually built, and is still in use today as Lumen Field in Seattle.

In the 1997 offseason, Damon would get a call from the Dolphins, and although initially cut from the roster, he would be brought back to serve as the team's third QB for 1997 (back when teams used to carry three). Now finally with a toehold in the NFL, Damon was sent to play in NFL Europe (which served as a minor league of sorts back then) in the spring of 1998, before being promoted to backup duties behind Dan Marino for the 1998 season.

In the 1999 season, Damon would get a chance to start for five games in place of an injured Marino, and would do okay in his playing time. He would post a 5-1 record in his six games despite the negative EPA/Play he put up that season. Following this performance, Damon again thought he'd have a chance to be the starter with Marino retiring prior to the 2000 season, but he was beaten to the starting spot by Jay Fiedler (in hindsight, absolutely the right choice for the Dolphins. Sorry Damon).

Knowing he would now never get a chance to start for the Dolphins, Damon moved to the Patriots for 2001. Unfortunately for Damon, he would be beat out for the backup job by a young sixth round draft pick by the name of Tom Brady. As a result, it was Tom, and not Damon Huard, who got to ride that Patriots squad to the 2001 Super Bowl despite generating zero EPA/Play upon the injury of Drew Bledsoe.

Yes. I do think those Patriots could've still won that 2001 Super Bowl with Damon Huard under centre. He just never got his chance to prove that, and again spent three years completely blocked behind Tom Brady as the entrenched backup in New England. It was during this stretch that he infamously prepared the Patriots' defence to play Peyton Manning during the 2003 playoffs by doing a spot-on Manning impression in practice. This is an iconic thing that Patriot fans still remember to this day, but it wasn't enough to bring him back. In the 2003 offseason, Huard was again a free agent, and his options were limited.

Now 30 years old, and more content with his backup status, he ended up going to the Kansas City Chiefs to be the backup to Trent Green, and did not see any action in the 2004 or 2005 seasons. Damon has since spoken about being scared for his NFL future as he spent multiple offseasons as a free agent with the Chiefs being the only team calling, and KC had just used a third round pick on Brodie Croyle.

Nevertheless, going into the 2006 season, all is well in Kansas City, and Damon has been brought back for the season. Trent Green is the starter, and Damon is his backup. It's been a long time since 1999 for Damon. As of the beginning of the 2006 NFL season, Huard has thrown one pass in five years, having spent them behind the remarkably durable pair of Tom Brady and Trent Green.

All of that turns around when Trent Green takes a nasty hit in week one against the Bengals, which gives him a severe concussion that will keep him out of action for months. All of a sudden, the hopes of a Chiefs team that's still looking to be pretty good in 2006 are resting on the shoulders of a QB who hasn't started a game since 1999.

1999 is seven years ago, and in Damon's first start against Denver, it shows. This game includes a nightmare drive where he bobbles a first down snap, and then commits a delay of game. If this game were in KC, there would've been booing, but thankfully it's in Denver, so it's just a punt.

In all, Damon is allowed to touch the ball just 25 times in a game that eventually goes to OT for an offence that scores just six points. Both were field goals on gifted field position from Denver mistakes.

Perhaps the perfect summary of how little coach Herman Edwards believes in his long time backup is the Chiefs' final touch of the game. They get the ball at 3:07 of the fourth quarter with the score tied at six, and begin the drive with five rushes out of six plays. If you can imagine a team trying to run the two minute drill without passing, that’s how ugly this looked. Denver wins the OT coin toss and the Chiefs never see the ball again as they lose 9-6.

This was ugly. Damon didn't make any huge mistakes, and hence generated just -0.1 EPA/Play, which isn't nearly as bad as it could've been, but still. It is hard to be this bad when completing 77% of your passes, but Damon was today. He was clearly not trusted enough to open up the offence at all. This is further proven by noting that his average depth of target (aDoT) for this game was six. Six yards average depth of target is pitifully short, especially in 2006.

At this point, it seems as if it's going to be a season of hurrying Trent Green to get back ASAP. 77% true completion percentage is encouraging, but if Damon isn't trusted enough to open the offence up, it isn't going to do him any good. The one mitigating factor is that this game was against Denver's defence, which will go on to be the fifth ranked pass defence in the NFL in 2006.

That game can be written off on the condition that Damon does well in the next game against San Francisco. In 2006, the 49ers are brutal. Having just come off of drafting first overall in 2005, they haven't improved very much in the ensuing year. They still come packing a pass defence that will go on to rank 29th in the NFL for 2006, and an offence that's nearly as bad.

This is a perfect opportunity to get a new QB going, and Damon will step up to the plate in a big way.

It's October 1st, 2006. Welcome to Damon Huard's day.

On a very nice, but somewhat windy day in Kansas City, the 0-2 Chiefs are hosting the 1-2 49ers. The Chiefs, despite Damon's shaky (at best) performance in Denver last week, are coming in as fairly strong seven point favourites. This is because the Chiefs' first two games have each been against powerhouses of the AFC in 2005 (who will each fall off in 2006, but we don't know that yet), the Bengals and the Broncos, one of which was a three point overtime loss. Not a great start by any means, but for a fringe playoff team like the Chiefs, losses to them doesn't mean the sky is falling.

The 49ers on the other hand, are awful. They're coming off of a 14 point loss to the Eagles last week (which is acceptable), and giving up 34 points to the Arizona Cardinals (which isn't) in week one. They're thinking that perhaps facing off against Damon Huard could be an opportunity to get their defence on track, but they've got another thing coming.

This game begins with another KC drive with four out of five plays being rushes. This is okay because the one pass is a 27 yard completion from Huard to Larry Johnson, but once the Chiefs find themselves in a third down and seven on the SF 37, this is looking like trouble. Last week, third and six or longer was a death sentence for the Chiefs, who were able to convert in that spot just once. That will not be an issue today, as Damon finds Tony Gonzalez for a 13 yard gain to pick up a first down. Three plays later, Damon completes a pass to Dante Hall in the end zone for a 7-0 Chiefs lead.

On the next drive, there's a first down pass thrown, which shows that there's already more trust here than there was last week. There's also another third and long conversion en route to a field goal to take the Kansas City lead to 10-0. At the beginning of the second quarter, the Chiefs already have the ball back again, but a Larry Johnson run for negative yards puts the Chiefs in a bad third and long position, and so they have to punt after Damon can't convert this one.

There's a hidden fact in this story that's crucial to understanding the greatness of Damon Huard's display today that I've been taking for granted so far, but before this next Chiefs' drive (after SF does nothing on offence again. Have I mentioned they're awful?) I feel the need to explain it.

This fact is that 2nd and six is worse than first and ten. NFL teams are less likely to get a first down from a 2nd and six situation than from a first and ten one. It may seem counterintuitive, but it's the truth. You only get three chances to get to the checkpoint in this game, and using up one of your chances to get just 40% of the way there is not conducive to successful offence.

I felt the need to lay that out for you because the incompetence of the KC rush attack in this game is constantly putting Damon in bad spots. The next Kansas City offensive touch features four first down plays. The results? Second and seven, second and seven, second and thirteen, touchdown.

Touchdown? That looks really out of place next to all of that first down ineptitude.

That's because it is. Each and every one of those first down plays was a rush that put the Chiefs into a bad position behind the sticks. Each and every one of these bad situations was rectified by a Damon Huard pass for a first down.

I cannot overstate how important it is to keep your offence in good positions to score. Even the modern Kansas City Chiefs don't make a habit of overcoming second and six or longer, mostly because they don't make a habit of getting themselves into those situations.

Damon Huard has none of these benefits, yet he's still having the best day of his career, and has carried his Chiefs to a 17-0 lead despite his rush offence playing a lot below average, and eating up a lot of valuable plays doing it. There's no chance of this happening on the Chiefs' next drive however, as it's a one play touchdown from Huard to Eddie Kennison for a 24-0 lead into the half.

Where was this guy against Denver?

The Chiefs' first drive of the second half features one touch from Damon and more ineptitude from the rush game, so I'll skip it. The second is humming along just fine, getting down to the SF 37 on the back of just two completions before the rush game comes back out again and immediately lands KC back in a 3rd and seven spot which Damon can't overcome, and they have to punt.

I'm going into this level of granularity to explain to you my claim that this game that scores (spoiler alert) just 41 points on offence is better than any Patrick Mahomes game. Mahomes has had whole games without any punts, and we've seen multiple punts already, only in the third quarter. How can this be better than any of those games?

It's because the QB is not the whole offence. Individually, Damon has been playing out of his mind today. He's been hamstrung by the fact that his coach (our old pal Herman Edwards, fresh off attempting to kill Chad Pennington’s career) for some reason felt the need to give Larry Johnson 30 touches in this game, despite Larry’s success rate being well below 30%.

Patrick Mahomes has never had to deal with such a large anchor around his neck, and as such he can score more than this, despite never personally playing better than Damon Huard did today.

Now that that's out of the way, back to Damon's day.

We're into the fourth quarter now, and Damon only has a few passes left in him. Two to be exact. I'd love to tell you that these were both outstanding passes for touchdowns and such, but I'd be lying to you. That's not to say these passes weren't valuable. They contributed 3 total EPA between them, his final EPA of the day as he's taken out of the game at the seven minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Damon's day is over, and what a day it was.

In all, Damon generated 21.8 total Expected Points Added on just 25 touches, for a total of 0.87 EPA/Play. That is exceptional, but it gets even better. According to ESPN's Quarterback Rating (QBR), which is designed to be interpreted as a measure of win probability (what is your probability of winning when a QB gives you a performance of this level?), this game scores 99 percent.

As I alluded to at the beginning of this article, that is the highest single game QBR in Chiefs' history. In terms of EPA/Play, there is one game that's better, which is Trent Green vs the Detroit Lions in 2003, but even I (the biggest Trent Green fan on Earth) have to admit Trent didn’t have to deal with his rush game actively harming him to such a degree that Damon did. I don't think these two games are in the same category.

On October 1st, 2006, in his second start since 1999, career backup Damon Huard went out there and had the best game in Kansas City Chiefs history. Not Patrick Mahomes. Not Alex Smith. Not Len Dawson. Not Matt Cassel. Not even Trent Green.

Damon Huard.

That would be enough to end this article and call it a day, but there’s one more thing about this game that I just can’t get over.

Watching this game back, the Fox commentators don't act like what they're seeing is a great game out of an unlikely suspect. They don't even mention how amazingly Damon is playing. It's a week four game between two losing teams. There's nothing else to talk about. They should've been shining all the light in the world on this performance, but they weren't. Do you know what they're doing as the clock hits zeroes?

They're praising Herman Edwards.

I know I've got this bad habit of letting happenings in the NFL from decades ago personally offend me, and I'm trying to work on it, but this caused me to blow a gasket. I couldn't help myself.

The same coach who spent the whole game force feeding the ball to a rush offence that operated at a 27% success rate (which is so far below average it couldn't have gone unnoticed even with the lowered offensive standards of 2006), and constantly putting his backup QB in positions to fail is getting praised for his coaching performance?

I know that he took a 41-0 win with a backup QB and some backups on the offensive line. I'm fully aware.

Trust me. I don't care.

Bad offensive coaching is bad offensive coaching, even if you've just won by 41 points. Herman Edwards deserves no praise for this performance at all. None.

In the weeks after this game he'd learn his lesson, allowing Damon to touch the ball much more than 25 times in the ensuing weeks (43 vs Arizona, 35 vs Pittsburgh, 29 vs San Diego in their next three games), but by that point the narrative was set. The opportunity to heap praise upon Damon Huard for his outstanding individual performance was gone. Instead, it was wasted on Herman Edwards.

I find this to be a shame. Players tend not to care about things like this, but in the internet era, it's the job of the TV people to set the table so studious fans like me and whatever other NFL fan/journalists you can think of can do our job to keep these players' legacies alive. They failed us that day. They failed Damon Huard.

This would be okay if it were Patrick Mahomes, or if it were Trent Green, or any other franchise guy. They'll have plenty more chances to have amazing individual performances, but Damon Huard only started 27 games in the NFL. He threw 33 touchdowns in his entire career. He didn't get another chance to be praised like this.

No worries Damon. I've got your back. Me and others like me understand that you had the best game the Chiefs have ever seen. It hasn't been beaten yet, despite years of trying from the all-time great Patrick Mahomes.

Maybe one day Patrick will catch and pass Damon, but maybe he won't. In any event, never forget October 1st, 2006, the day that Damon Huard played like the great QB he never was.