Unfortunately it is time. Kamara had an abysmal season last year that ended with a season ending MCL sprain and will be 31 years old coming into the next season. I love Kamara and all he has done for this franchise but it is time to plan for the future expeditiously now that we have found our starting QB of the future.
Kamara is on the books for 18 million next season so i highly doubt FO will invest in the RB position more in free agency especially with our other position needs. So the best thing to do is draft a RB on a rookie contract.
I have been an advocate for Jeremiyah Love in this draft with the 8th pick he is my number 1 choice he is the best offensive playmaker in this draft and will be the perfect building block to add alongside Banks and Shough. He is also an elite receiver out of the back field great hands and ran a steep route tree at ND for the RB position and when he gets the ball in space he is a YAC machine. Also Love rarely fumbles great ball security. Only one fumble in his college career and Love recovered the ball himself. 0 fumbles lost in 496 touches is ridiculous.
This is a weak RB draft class and therefore you wont find value on a running back in the later rounds. Love and Coleman really are the only 2 viable starters and both will be gone in the first 2 rounds.
TLDR, either run it back with our current running back core and risk being a bottom 5 rushing attack once again which will potentially stifle Shough’s development or draft Jeremiyah Love an absolute game breaker to build the nucleus of the future for the Saints on offense in Banks, Shough and Love.
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Or…you keep the lone veteran you have at running back, fix the line in Free Agency he was running behind that was about 70% of the reason for his bad year, and if you feel good about Love, Draft Love to have a 1A/1B like how Gibbs and Monty started off with.
Giving Love a mentor and pretty much giving AK a changing of the guards moment where he can be to Love what Mark Ingram was for him.
Then have Neal in rotations As RB 2.
There wouldn’t be anything wrong with this- and AK talking on how he’d rather retire over being traded,
He wants to retire with us so at least put that statement to the test first. Play out his remaining contract and offer him a smaller one depending on his performance this next season. He was never a bell cow back but we constantly ran him against the line as if he was, for 3 years. I think if we returned to him being a satellite back primarily, we’ll see more results.
Another thing I thought about is your doing worse for Shoughs development by trading away AK
Hes probably the 3rd or 2nd best receiving back In the nfl even with his downyear , which something that shouldn’t be undervalued, that is something if we were to draft Love, he could immediately learn from Kamara because he has the skill set, but isn’t exactly what I consider a true receiving back threat
It hurts Shoughs development removing that receiving back veteran in Kamara, now you have to rely on Love or Neal or whoever’s starting, who won’t have the patience or nfl IQ as Kamara
TLDR: You’ll do more damage than help removing one of the best receiving backs in nfl history whos still serviceable for the team
I think it was play calls, not Kamara, last season. Inexplicably, Kellen ran him way too many times between the tackles, which is not where he shines. I’d also add that the above analysis doesn’t take into account the passing game, where he’s normally dangerous. He was targeted 39 times last season, way below his career average of 103.
It’s 18 million to keep him and 18 million to cut him he’s not going Anywhere
The time to move on was two off seasons ago. The next best time is this offseason.
Or..we draft Love. Let love and Neal be the bell cows, freeing up kamara to be the “slash” type running back he was always meant to be like when he was drafted and we had Ingram. He’s not done being a productive player for us.
To be honest, and this going to sound a bit optimistic perhaps too much so, but I think Kamara didn’t really have his heart in it as much this year.
Of course the interior of the offensive line was abysmal and often times the running lanes just weren’t there, but I really feel like Kamara felt disrespected and a bit heart broken from the constant trade rumors and talks of the saints management wanting to get rid of him. Because of how committed he has been to this city all these years, it probably felt like getting spit in your face.
I know a lot of sports fans think these guys are robots and should just preform no matter the circumstances, but he’s a human and I think he just wasn’t fully emotionally invested this year.
I still think he has the ability to be effective, still one of the best receiving backs in the league and in open space he is still hard to bring down.
If they truly believe Love is generational and they want to draft him, I’ll trust it. But I think drafting other needs should be the priority.
A running back is purely a luxury draft pick, especially in the top 10 where the saints will be drafting. With the holes we have on this team, I’m not sure a luxury pick is what we
should do.
But if Love is truly generational, I won’t be upset if they draft him this year.
Or just don’t listen to that clown on Twitter about what the saints should do
If you can average more than 3.4 ypc then as my old ball coach used to say: we’ll take that all day. AK isn’t the future, but he’s a loyal team player that deserves to go out on his own terms. Doesn’t mean if the BPA is a running back we shouldn’t take him, whoever that may be. But hating on Alvin isn’t cool.
#WhoDat
No I’m good thanks. He leaves when he’s ready.
Oh so we’re slandering AK now? Some y’all mf’ers have no shame. You can make your case for Love without trying to tear down Alvin.