The pair of speedsters have quickly become one of the most damaging combinations in the competition, firing the Cats into Saturday's grand final against the Brisbane Lions.
"Bailey's played beyond expectations this year and beyond expectations from the pre-season, to be honest," Holmes told AAP.
"He was good in pre-season, but not this good.
"It's been really enjoyable playing on the field with him and it's taken a load off some of us other midfielders."
Smith has bounced back stronger than ever from the knee injury which wrecked his final year at the Western Bulldogs and has rarely been out of the spotlight since his bombshell trade to Geelong.
There's no doubt the league's most marketable player - and most followed with more than 391,000 Instagram fans - has delivered on-field.
But he has also caused plenty of controversy, twice fined this year for flipping the bird at opposition supporters.
He was spoken to by league officials after a social media comment referencing illicit drug use and had to apologise for verbally abusing a female photographer.
Smith also won plenty of admirers last month when he revealed he had previously spent time in a mental health facility.
It came as he was announced as a joint winner of the AFL Coaches Association player-of-the-year award with Gold Coast's Noah Anderson.
On Monday night, Smith finished third in the Brownlow Medal count with 29 votes - almost triple his previous best mark of 10 votes, set three years ago.
"He's been fantastic on the field," Holmes said.
"He's a really strong player in the contest and the ability for someone that strong to get to the outside is a real asset, so he's been great to play with."
Holmes is hopeful he and Smith will be joined in the midfield again by Patrick Dangerfield in the season decider, after the captain's dominant performance in the preliminary-final win over Hawthorn.
Stationed in attack for much of 2025, Dangerfield pushed into the engine room and put the Cats on his back in one of the all-time great individual finals showings.
"He came in the midfield a lot the other day and pretty much when he's in the midfield you just go, 'Alright, you're getting the ball. We're going to tap it to you'," Holmes said.
"More often than not he finds a way to beat his man, even though they all know it's going to him as well.
"He's pretty fun to play with and when he's going like that it makes it pretty easy for the rest of us.
"I'm just hoping he can back it up this week and go again."
Geelong's midfield destroyed the Lions in a 38-point qualifying final victory, which sent them on the direct path to the decider.
But Brisbane had won the previous three encounters, including a 41-point thrashing at GMHBA Stadium in round 15.
"They're an amazing team and they got the better of us twice this year, so it's kind of irrelevant that we beat them in the qualifying final," Holmes said.
"We'll play as if that game didn't exist and go from there."
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