Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

When you think about the New Orleans Saints offense you think of their explosive passing attack. With Drew Brees, one of the best in the game, and the surrounding weapons of Jimmy Graham, Lance Moore and Marques Colston, most don't give their running game much thought. To be honest, all you have to look at is their pass to run ratio during the season to realize that Sean Payton doesn't give it much thought either. But there is a litte diamond in the rough emerging in the Big Easy.

This is nothing new, mind you. The Saints' current regime has been excellent at uncovering undrafted back gems. You look at what Chris Ivory has been able to do, Joique Bell with the Lions, or Pierre Thomas who has remained on the team. Those are all undrafted players brought up by the Saints. Still, if you asked any avid NFL fan to discuss the Saints' back committee system they'd quickly and rightfully name Thomas along with Darren Sproles and Mark Ingram as the main recipients of carries in a platoon system. As the Saints ponder offseason moves and an offensive direction for 2014, though, featuring this year's high potential rookie Khiry Robinson more has to be in the plans.

Pierre Thomas was unable to play in the playoffs due to an injury, and Robinson saw an increased opportunity because of it. It's worth first pointing out that the West Texas A&M product made the 53 man roster to begin with by leading the NFL in rushing for the preseason with 228 yards at 4.7 yards per carry. In fact, he was so impressive on most of his carries in that span that the only thing holding him back from being ahead of the bigger names in the pecking order was ball security issues. During the course of the season the Saints' brass hesitated to fully trust Robinson because of this. He finished his first season with 224 yards rushing at 4.1 yards per carry, but no fumbles. Then the playoffs came.

In two games against the Eagles and Seahawks in bitter cold conditions, the Saints were forced to run the ball and do so without Pierre Thomas. Robinson, spelling the main back Mark Ingram, rewarded the Saints with 8 carries for 45 yards against the Eagles and 13 carries for 57 yards and a touchdown against the Seahawks. Still no fumbles. That's 102 yards on 21 carries in the playoffs (4.9 yards per carry) and those yards weren't gained by one or two big chunk plays. He was consistently getting tough yards and falling forward. During the broadcast of the second game it was said that Bill Parcells himself likened Robinson to Hall of Famer Curtis Martin and urged Sean Payton to feature him more. High praise to say the least. And for Robinson to play that well against two very good run defenses on the road in the playoffs says a lot about his potential.

So while as long as Drew Brees is around the Saints' offense will always remain a pass heavy unit, don't sleep on this newest wrinkle. Robinson could be turning into one of the budding stars in the league.

Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?

Parcells: Robinson resembles Curtis Martin - New Orleans Saints Blog - ESPN

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

interesting so far but to put our hopes on him i say it is still to early to tell

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

And on that note

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Him and Mark Ingram will be a nice tandem next year

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I think he is. Ingram is the odd man out. Ingram did well in the playoffs but doesnt discount the 3 years of nonproduction and that fumble did not help his case.We need Pierre for screens and to spell KRob and Sproles to be Sproles and do what he does best.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

If you think Ingram is gone after his best season , you are crazy

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I think PT is out. Ingram/Robinson feature backs with Sproles as the specialty formations.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Sproles or PT are the odd ones out, sproles is nowhere near as elusive as he used to be

He would always make the first man miss, now the guy slides near to sproles and he will fall over

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Not even really worth talking about, we all know that the Saints have a pass first offense. A typical box score in 2014 will probably look the same as always: Brees 30-45, 352, 3-0. Ingram 7-22, Robinson 5-15, Thomas 5-25...

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Different angle. There is a business side of this that needs to be taken into account, and passion or dislike for players should be removed from the equation.

Ingram (24 yo) - has a 2.3m cap hit and coming off his best season may be precisely why he is up for trade. Only 1 healthy season of his 3. FA 2015

Sproles (30 yo)- 4.2m cap hit but is more flexible but getting long in the NFL tooth FA 2015

PT (29 yo)- 2.9M cap hit but is the screen master.. getting long in the NFL tooth. FA 2015

K. Robinson (24 yo)- 500k cap hit and has proven to be very flexible, durable, young and hungry. FA 2016

Cadet (24 yo) - 570k in cap hit FA 2015


Here is a different angle to consider. If you are in the NFC Championship game which of the above would you least like to see running the ball against you? Of all listed above and what I have seen Ingram would be my preference of who we would have to stop basically because with out a wide open hole he isn't going anywhere.

We also know what PT and Sproles new if resigned contracts would look like because neither are on their 1st.

What I find odd is all of the people that have claimed for years that we do not use Ingram correctly want to keep him. News Flash... Sean Payton is not going to give any RB 20 carries per game.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

We need to get past him being a first round draft pick as that is irrelevant now except for maybe trade value if any other team buys that line.

Bottom line on our running back corps is that we want the cheapest group of RBs with out sacrificing the playbook or the running game. Sproles has a niche, Thomas has a niche, Robinson we do not know for certain yet, Cadet we do not know for certain yet... Which in my view puts Ingram as the odd man out simply because he hasn't proven to have a specialty or is a 1.5M dollar running back over Robinson and Cadet.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

If he stays healthy and keeps running like he did in seattle anything is possible.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

But it doesn't and shouldn't have to be that way, especially if your trying to get the most out of a 36 and counting Drew Brees. For me, I wouldn't hold ties to any of them....... Bring in new blood in the draft, pair him with Khiry... and decide between cadet, Pierre, sproles, and Ingram for the final spot...

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I think Ingram stays, look at how long it took Mendenhall in Pittsburg and McCoy in Philly to get going. If Ingram can stay healthy and run the way he has run of late, he and Robinson(who I think is the better back) would make a good 1-2 punch. If PT stays he could spell out the 2 but if he doesn't I would get a power back to spell them out and to close out the game.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

If the Saints need the cap to sign someone they really want, Thomas and Sproles could be on the way out. Otherwise, one of them will be back for sure and probably both. It will be about salary, not talent. I personally would cut both and work Ingram and Robinson hard this offseason to get them fully involved in the offense. The offense will be less predictable and more explosive in my opinion.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I think Sproles and PT are both under contract. I would try to get something for them instead of cutting them. I agree that Robinson and Ingram would make it less predictable and more explosive 100%. I think we could carry 3 backs Robinson, Ingram and ?, Play 2 backs on gameday and dress the ?, back. Carrying 4 backs is to many, sometimes simpler is better.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

We carry 5 RB's and 1 FB.

4 isn't too many, but 5 may be.

I think nearly all teams carry at least 4.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

P.T. will be around for a long time. maybe not with the saints but I hope he retires a saint. the mans a Houdini in the backfield. Khiry is our future I think, and sproles as long as healthy could play out career here along with brees, ingram is trade bait now. jmo.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I'm not what you would call an Ingram diehard supporter.

Having said that; he needs to be "feed" the ball. Some may bring up the fumble. Ok. Tell me a runningback who hasn't. It's not like he was looked at harshly and dropped the ball. It was a good hit and it popped the ball out. Ingram needs to run and run a lot. He gets better as he goes. Like most good RB's. If we trade him or dump him, we will regret it.

Ingram's problem is, SP doesn't run the ball. Now does that have to do with the OL? I'd bet money on it. We need another RB like we need a hole in head. OL, IMO, needs to be top priority. 5 is 1 too many IMO.

I've been happily surprised with Robinson. However, I'm not ready to call him our #1 and our run game savior.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I didn't count the FB as a RB. I think we could get by with 3 RB and 1 FB that would total 4. If your counting the FB and the 5RB totaling 6 then I would say we have 2 to many backs.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

That would be cutting 2 RB's from the roster. IMO thats too many, unless we had a RB/FB hybrid like Mike Tolbert playing FB.

I looked at numerous depth charts and most teams carry 4 RB and 1 FB. I could live with that, especially if our FB was a hybrid and we perhaps also carried a TE/RB/FB hybrid (H-Back).

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Question may not be how we carry them but how we use them. Cadet is carried but not used as a RB, Roby was carried as a WR but not used as a WR... We stash players within the squads. So while it looks like we carry 6, we only carry 5 and Cadet is ST.

PT was not Houdini in the back field this year. That said with 2 more catches than Colston, PT is a hybrid WR/RB.

Yea.. I called Pierre Thomas a WR.

Pierre Thomas led the league in RB receptions this season; came in under only Jamal Charles in receiving yards for RBs.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

1. PT will turn 31 during next season, has no upside, and is hurt every year. Releasing him would save 2.9 mil with no dead money. You don't pay a player that much money to be a screen specialist. You either keep Sproles or PT, keep one, or get rid of both.

2. Ingram has proven this year he can be a workhorse back. He has fully recovered from his previous injuries that were limiting his ability. 2.3 mil for a possible top 5-10 back is cheap.

3. Khiry probably has the most upside of all the RBs. He is here to stay.

4. Cadet is gone next year. He has offered nothing and has little upside.

What we say from Ingram and Khiry at the latter part of the season and in the playoffs is the future of the Saints offense. I think Payton now knows that we are going to get no where just depending on Brees at this stage in his career. He needs help. He is getting older at 35 and can't keep passing for 600 attempts on the backside of his career. I think Sproles and PT are more replaceable than Ingram and Robinson. Workhorse RBs are hard to come by these days and we possibly have two. They could be the next Foster/Tate or Williams/Stewart combo. Brees is at his best when the playaction is working. Running the ball effectively will give him that.

The two years we went the farthest in the playoffs, we were ranked 6th in rushing. We have to get back to that if we want to win another Superbowl in the Brees/Payton era. The league is turning back to a run first concept because defenses are now being built to stop the pass ala Seattle. The Saints became good by staying ahead of the power curve and we can do it again by becoming more run heavy in a passing league.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Another "The Sky Is Blue" title. Let's see, he is on the roster, he is a RB so yes he is a RB of the future!

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Pierre is hurt every year and has no upside?
Ingram is a proven workhorse?

Hasn't Ingram been out more and had more nagging injuries than Thomas? Ingram's averaged 12.3 games/year for his 3 years vs. 13.4 for Thomas. And I think being the second leading reciever on the team is Thomas' upside.

And I'm as excited as the next guy with how Ingram ran in the last 4 or 5 games, I don't know if he should be called proven workhorse just yet.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I like that we have him, lets see if we can get a better line first. Then all of them have the talent to look like hall of fame backs. Hell even my old ass would with a better line

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Its encouraging that once Evans got healthy and Armstead replaced Brown the O-line looked a pant load better.

Could Brown's play affect the entire line? The O-line is a perfect example of the sum being better than than individual pieces. Maybe Grubbs had too many help plays toward Browns side, which hurt DLP, which hurt Evans which hurt Strief.

It might not be a coincidence that our best O-lineman was the one farthest removed from Brown.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Down hill run blocking pre 2013 season no.

2013 zone run blocking, yes. If you are slow on the zone then two blocks get missed, the one Brown was supposed to make and the one that someone else couldn't get to because Brown was in their way.

Pass blocking, yes.

Thinking back to the sacks and tackles of RBs 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage I am as confident as can be that the majority of the time we didn't get beat at the line of scrimmage as much as blocks were not thrown where they were supposed to be. There were an abnormally high number of sacks and blocks where the defensive player was just untouched.

I do not think it was coincidence that we came out of the BYE blocking better for the run, I think that extra time made things click for them mentally.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

The older Brees gets the more important it is for them to improve their run game and rely more heavily on that. Brees doesn't have too many more 5k seasons left in him. With a strong running game he won't be asked to carry so much of the offensive weight, he can use his accuracy to pick apart defenses when the running game opens up the pass and still play at an elite level.
If he continues to throw 2/3 of the time he may have 2 years left tops.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

I think Sproles is the odd man out. You try to keep, PT, Cadet, Robinson together the next few years. Ingram might have a good trade value with a strong finish to the season(aside from the fumble)....we could use some more picks.

Re: Khiry Robinson Possible Saints Back of the Future?
 

Yeah, as long as Ingram stays on the bench.