Mark Ingram....
 

Interesting what you hear about Mark Ingram after his first season with the Saints.... Some say he didn't preform well... Others say he didn't preform as expected.... I have heard we made a bad draft pick trade to get him (even though we would have lost that first round pick this year).

In my opinion we shouldn't have expected too much from Ingram... Yes he was a first round draft pick and with that honor comes expectations... high ones at that.

However, how much can you REALLY expect from a rookie with no preseason camps or training at all?

Can you really expect a rookie to walk into a game with a new QB (to him), new play book (to him), new line (to him), and the pressure from actually playing in the NFL. Besides having little or no familiarity with what he is working with, he has to also become able to make decisions at a lot quicker pace than he is used to...

This will be a good year to see how well Ingram will really pan out...

Averaging 4 YPC in that environment is not bad at all as far as I see it.

His season average was better than
McGahee
green-Elis
Rice

I give him a C-plus for the season. He was durable in college but got too dinged up his rrokie year.

He showed flashes of his burst and balance, but it seemed like he just seldom got into his groove.

The fact that the coaches were raving about him all training camp and repeatedly told us we haven't even come close to seeing how good he is makes me excited to see his development this year.

His best is yet to come.

Wasn't it SP who said that the only thing keeping Ingram from being the rookie of the year was him (SP) by not giving him more snaps?!

Yep, thats exactly what he said. And many of the reports from camp were extremely complimentary.

Quotes from camp said that Ingram was ripping off 60 yard runs in training camp everyday which we didn't see in the regular season but I can fault him much, it's tough to get acclimate to the NFL and he did a good job at moving the chains and carrying the ball reliably, he should have a good season this year

Just before he hurt his heel he was leading the entire NFL in 3rd down conversions.

We have much bigger worries than Mark Ingram. I'm not worried about him in the least. He will bring it in 2012.

Not to be snide (which is usually not an impediment for me), bragging about a back's ability to regularly break 60 yard runs against our defense is like bragging about your baby pooping.

But that baby was pooping much better than the other 3 babies.

Its relative.

My grand mother could rip 60 yards against our D.

jury is still out here. injury bug worried me in the draft.

I don't remember that many huge runs against us. Definitely not like the Haslett years.

I just checked:

1 player had a 50+ yard run on us -DeAngelo Williamns broke one for 69. No other back broke 50 all year long..

I don't have a grade for Ingram, but I don't know why we drafted him. Why do you draft a workhorse running back when you don't give anyone on the team that many touches? Pierre Thomas is very good. Darren Sproles is incredible. Ivory runs hard. Ingram needs 20 touches and, in this offense at least, they aren't there to be had. Ingram could be great, but he won't get the touches.

When we drafted him we didn't have 1 healthy RB on this team. Ivory had a surgery that has ended many an NFL career, and PT had ankle surgery. We weren't going to keep Bush so at the time it made perfect sense to grab a RB that can do it all. We had to draft a RB, and Ingram fell 10 spots below where most thought he'd be drafted.

PT and Ivory healing was fortunate and acquiring Sproles was pure genius.

And one could argue that not having to be the "work horse" with a huge amount of snaps during the course of a season could allow for him to have great longevity as opposed to someone like Marion Barber.

I like Ingram, I think he fitted in well with what we want our running backs to do. The only problem was injuries but I still think it was a good pick. Running Backs who come to us must know that they are not going to get 20+ carries a game. I love what we have and I think it was quite effective last season. Can't wait to see how our Defense turns out.

Think about how the lack of depth at RB hurt us last year vs. San Francisco...

We got Ingram when PT had reliability questions and Ivory seems to enjoy being hurt.....maybe he likes the attention.:wink:
We got crazy lucky with mighty mouse.

I am sure the fact that the FO was about to get rid of Reggie also played into that.

Ingram had a pretty good rookie season IMO.
He seemed not to know what to do after he broke the line of scrimage untouched.
There were several instances where he could have broke outside or cut back and
got a boat load, but he ran right up blockers and defenders backs,
almost as if he wasn't looking. I'm sure he's been looking at footage and will
improve his open field vision for this season. Ingram has the tools to do everything
we need him to do: run, catch and protect. I hope he can find his groove, and he
and the other guys are able to stay healthy and productive.

I just hate it when people want to call this guy a bust. He was leading all rookie RB in yds from scrimmage before he got hurt the first time. When he finally came back he started to hit his stride and see the field better. I mean lets face it....it was just unlucky that he had to get surgery on that toe before the playoffs because nobody thought PT going down in the 1st qtr. If Ingram had been there there would still be someone there to keep a pretty good rotation going at RB. With it just being Ivory & Sproles it made the whole running game much more predictable. At least with Ingram there you have a sort of element of suprise cuz he's a much better pass catcher than Ivory. they knew we were running if Ivory was in the game if ingram was there it would have helped us. I think he's going to do much better this year. And remember what we noticed last season when Carmichael took over play calling. They ran the ball more...........just saying.....

Its game speed. He often went full speed and either outran his blockers or ran right into the back of them. Reggie used to do this a lot.

He needs to learn the patience aspect of the game. A slight delay here and there to allow a blocker time to engage the defender... In his prime Shawn Alexander was fantastic at that.

Ricky got hurt early on (remember that black arm wrap?) and is still playing well.

Ingram's problem last year was that he lacked proper vision for a running back. Too many times he would run the designed play inside, directly intoa defender when the outside was clear by 20 yards. This is something that can be taught. Size, speed and strength can not, so I am excited to see what he can do with a year under his belt.

Maybe maybe not... Some "might" argue that seeing and taking the alternate route is instinct.

Regardless; Ingram will get better at running the ball with experience...

Adrian Peterson is moving up the bust-o-meter himself. He was going downhill before he hurt his knee.

Are you kidding me? Calling AP a bust?!

I want to thank you for the good laugh you provided me with! :-)

Ingram was injuried while playing against the Colts at a point in the game when zero starters for the Saints should have been on the field.

I will always believe that being without Ingram in the playoffs was a large reason the Saints lost the game against the 40-whiners.

Sorry man, but we had more than enough offense. Remember Alex's stroll down the sideline for a TD on GW's 1,786,329th identical blitz of the season? I do think Ingram should have a monster year this season.

No question. When PT got knocked out the Saints had a hard time beating the niners. They were also forced to use Roby as a returner.

If PT had not gotten knocked out on that play, held on to the ball and we had scored a TD, we woulda won that game. That one play changed everything for us. That being said I only can hope that Ingram continues to improve this year and has a great season.

I think Ingram did what he was supposed to last year. Get in the game, get used to the speed, learn the playbook. As you guys said, he didn't have OTAs he barely had a camp. He got a small number of snaps and never lost yardage, most of the time getting 2 or 3. I don't know what people were expecting from him, but I'm happy with his progress. I'm a little more worried about Cam Jordan.

Reminder to Pumpkin'...
Your avatar "aint all that hot".

Remember that one!? LOL

Alaska

I can still see the reasoning behind that claim, you know "eye of the beholder" and such. ;-)

I've felt some fans are way to hard on MI. Never got why people expect rookies to post insane numbers. Ingram got way too much flak for his failed run against Green Bay last year and people haven't let it go. The dude is what? 23. Give it time, way too early for bust talk on him.


agreed...and probably an understatement.....

Sorry, but for those of you saying that running backs were our problem against San Francisco I would have to disagree. Too many turnovers and even then we came back but were then undone by stupid, STUPID defensive schemes that allowed Davis to get behind us. Williams just could not let go of the blitz and instead of keeping it all in front, he allowed rainbows over the top and for my mind that was unforgivable. I was disgusted with our defensive schemes after we pulled ahead by three. What idiot leaves Vernon Davis to do what he wants. We should have bracketed him or at least forced him in front of us across the middle but no, we didn't and we paid the price.

IF my aunt had balls she would be my uncle.

and wouldn't that make your uncle gay?:jester:

If not ghey then at least very confused... :broccoli:

It's clear to see that losing PT early in the game (plus the fact that it resulted in a turnover) and not having Ingram at all caused problems for the team.

But I will agree that when it was all said and done, in the 4th quarter we were in a good position to win the game but lost because of a defensive meltdown.