Mark Ingram has been suspended for the first four games of the 2018 NFL season, and many assume that means fellow running back Alvin Kamara will carry a bigger workload to start the year. Not so, says Saints head coach Sean Payton.
As explosive of a playmaker as he is, Kamara never received more than 12 carries in a game last season. He had nine or fewer carries in 11 games, and Payton indicated on Sunday that Kamara won’t be getting a ton of extra touches in Ingram’s absence.
Sean Payton on his RBs while Ingram is out: "The mistake would be that Alvin gets 15 more carries. That's not the direction we would expect to go. I don't think that's wise."
— Adam Levitan (@adamlevitan) May 14, 2018
Kamara racked up more than 1,500 yards from scrimmage last year, but more than half of them came in the passing game. While he has shown he can be effective running the ball, his specialty is getting out into space and making defenders miss. Ingram is more of the power back, and the Saints probably don’t want Kamara taking those types of hits.
The Saints have a pretty favorable schedule to start the season, as they host the Buccaneers and Browns the first two weeks before traveling to face the Falcons and Giants. Payton has said the team is open to a reunion with a certain big-name veteran, but that seems unlikely to happen.
