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As long as Drew Brees is the quarterback, and he has more than one able-bodied receiver to throw the ball to, the New Orleans Saints are going to pass the ball, and pass it a lot. But in 2013, keep an eye out for Saints running back Mark Ingram to have his biggest season in the NFL.

The 2009 Heisman Trophy winner has had a fairly quiet career as a pro in his first two seasons, but business is going to pick up in the Saints backfield for Ingram this year. With head coach Sean Payton making his long awaited return, and New Orleans seeing the need to control the ball in different ways moving forward, it would make sense that the Alabama product would be the man to carry the load.

In two seasons with the Saints, Ingram has rushed for a solid 3.9 yards per carry, but has been unable to put together a big season in terms of total yards and touchdowns.

Ingram can be the workhorse when asked to, as evidenced by his 2009 season with the Crimson Tide when he tallied up 271 rushing attempts for 1,678 yards, and added another 32 catches for 334 yards. Rushing and receiving he combined for 20 touchdowns that year, and helped lead Alabama to a national championship.

The Saints aren’t going to hand the ball to anyone over 250 times this season, but it would be a safe bet that Ingram will see career highs in attempts and yards if he stays healthy. Ingram took the ball 156 times, gaining 602 yards in 2012, and that was with the Saints essentially sputtering for the better part of the season.

Ingram is the type of bruising, punishing runner that most of the defensive lines in the league aren’t equipped to deal with anymore, as most defensive coordinators are going for athleticism and quickness over bulk to compensate for the direction towards read-option offenses and quarterbacks.

Look for Ingram to finally break that 1,000 barrier in 2013, and to be one of the Saints’ offensive MVPs.

Read more at Mark Ingram: Set to have a breakout year for the New Orleans Saints

dizzle88

I hope we get smarter with our backs to be fair, Ingram can't get in a groove when he comes in on first and 10, runs a dive up the middle with 8 in the box and then comes straight out again

Mix it up! get him runs outside, runs off tackle, screen passes!!
Get him into a groove and start faking runs with him and giving it to sproles on a reverse

hagan714

blocking and more diverse play calling would go a long way

TheOak

So the author is citing a big college year as evidence that Ingram will have a breakout year? Reaching a little?

pinch

April Fools!

papz

I agree the article is pretty shallow. I hope it didn't take a whole 5 minutes to write that up.

That said, if he gets btw 800-1000 yards, I'd consider it a breakout year for him.

TheOak

Because of the way we utilize certain positions/players I don't put too much into total stats for those positions/players.

If any of our backs finish a year with over 200 carries and a YPC of greater than 4.2 YPC that is a great year for a Saints RB.

Seer1

And our third breakout season player is....

And our fourth breakout season player will be....

Zzzzz......

Danno

Obviously everything is just on paper right now, but I gotta think the whole team will probably step up their games a notch or two. Especially the defense

TheOak

Ill be expecting a 10 notch jump in our defense to #22 .

If the 2012 defense shaves just 1TD per game we go 9-7 we would have beat KC and GB.

If they shave 1TD and 1FG we go 11-5