For the first time this season the Saints offense won’t be able to rely on Alvin Kamara in either the run or passing game as he’s dealing with a knee injury that he suffered last week vs the Falcons.
Kamara has only missed four games in his career, one in 2018 due to a starters rest at the end of the season, two in 2019 due to a knee injury, and one in 2020 after contracting Covid-19.
The knee injury he has now appears to be a sprain, and prevented him from practicing this week.
We all know that Mark Ingram will fill in for the injured Alvin Kamara and will most likely carry the majority of the workload at running back. Ingram has played roughly 30% of snaps the two games he’s played this season as a Saints and now will probably be getting close to tripling that.
Ingram is 20 yards shy of the Saints all time leading rushing yards record and barring any injuries or setbacks should break it Sunday vs Tennessee. Ingram is also the fourth leader in rushing yards this season behind Derrick Henry, Jonathan Taylor, and Nick Chubb. But who else can/will fill in along with Ingram?
Well if Tony Jones Jr. was healthy he’d be playing alongside Ingram, but that’s not the case. The Saints currently have Josh Adams, who was signed to the practice squad earlier this week, and Lamar Miller who is also on the practice squad. Neither of them were elevated to the roster for Sunday’s game however and will not be playing Sunday.
Now that leaves one other active running back on the roster in Dwayne Washington who is primarily a special teams contributor. This season he’s only had one carry for five yards and one reception for six yards. Since joining the Saints in 2018 he’s had 44 carries for 234 yards. We could definitely see Washington takes some reps at running back but I wouldn’t expect to see a whole lot. If Sean Payton thinks the Titans blitz, maybe Washington goes in as a blocker due to his size.
Wide receiver Ty Montgomery took reps at running back this week and has started a game at running back before for the Saints. Last year when the Saints didn’t have any running backs for the final game of the season in Carolina, Montgomery was the emergency running back. He ended up getting 18 carries for 105 yards. I would expect the Saints to use Montgomery for screen plays and possibly Texas routes near the red zone. He’ll definitely be in the mix in the backfield.
The final guy is Taysom Hill, who could have a heavy workload on Sunday. This game vs the Titans is gonna be a power game and who wins the trenches, and Taysom Hill is the perfect guy for that along with Mark Ingram. I would expect a lot of quarterback powers with Hill and I’m sure Sean has a play designed for him to run the ball aside from quarterback power.
I wouldn’t rule out a few Alex Armah handoffs either, but mainly will be a blocker.
I think Ingram and Hill will be the heavy base guys running the ball between the tackles and through the trenches. Washington I would think will be used on more blocking plays for the running back for when Sean Payton anticipates that the defense will blitz. Ty Montgomery will be the guy in the backfield used for routes and short gain in the passing game.
Written By Kadin Janisch
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