Rebirth: Saints RBs Mark Ingram, Alvin Kamara special part of NFL revolution

09-06-2018, 10:57 AM

jeanpierre · 09-06-2018, 10:58 AM

BY JOEL A. ERICKSON | JERICKSON@THEADVOCATE.COM SEP 5, 2018 - 8:40 PM

Five years ago, the running back position felt like an anachronistic afterthought in the NFL, still useful but far from a priority as quarterbacks took over for good as the faces of football.

Two first rounds came and went without a running back being taken. The second time it happened, the draft wound its way down to the 54th pick before the Titans selected Bishop Sankey. Teams shied away from spending big money on the position in free agency, content to assemble affordable, specialized committees like the ones favored by the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints.

Turns out, the demise of the running back was greatly exaggerated.

That fall, a second-year back from Michigan State who Pittsburgh picked up in the second round in 2013 finished second in the NFL with 1,361 yards rushing, and he added 83 catches for 854 yards. By the end of the season, Le'Veon Bell was the engine that made an offense with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown run.

Perhaps envisioning the same kind of impact, the Rams broke the two-year drought of running backs in the first round by drafting Georgia's Todd Gurley with the No. 10 pick, and the Chargers followed suit by taking Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon at No. 17. Ezekiel Elliott got running backs back into the top five in 2016, Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey both came off the board in the top 10 in 2017. And six running backs were taken in the first 45 picks in April, led by Penn State superstar Saquon Barkley at No. 2.

"They're even more valuable than ever," ESPN analyst and former NFL front office man Louis Riddick said. "If there's a Saquon Barkley-type coming out in the draft, it's a function of the marketplace in terms of what price you pay to get them. You can't sit there and say, 'I'm never going to draft a running back in the first round. I'm just going to wait.' You're not going to get a guy like that. He's a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy."

All that was missing was the money.

While teams invested pricy draft capital in superstar backs, the money lagged behind a little; the last big deal was the seven-year, $100 million contract Minnesota gave to Adrian Peterson in 2011. Bell has held out of training camp the past two seasons, forced to play under the franchise tag but unable to get the long-term deal he wants from the Steelers.

Once again, Gurley broke the drought.

Right before training camp, the Rams signed Gurley to a four-year, $60 million deal, blowing the roof off the market and putting a smile on the face of every talented back around the NFL.

"We're a family," Saints running back Mark Ingram said. "All of us are extremely happy with Todd's deal. He deserves it as offensive MVP last year. They have been trying to devalue the running back position, but running backs are an offensive weapon. Running backs everywhere are happy to see Todd's deal."

---

A new development for running backs emerged last season in the unlikely city of New Orleans, a pass-happy haven for more than a decade under Drew Brees and Sean Payton.

New Orleans had always taken a committee approach to the position. Three, sometimes four backs, deployed to take advantage of their best traits in hyper-specific situations.

Four games into the 2017 season, the Saints whittled the committee down to two and perfected it. For years, teams that employed tandems built them under a "Thunder and Lightning" theme, mixing a bruiser with a burner.

Ingram and Alvin Kamara can do it all.

"It's a position that, when it's used the correct way, it can be dominant," Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas said. "You saw our success we had last year."

Ingram and Kamara do play different roles. Ingram takes most of his carries between the tackles; Kamara gets his on the perimeter and has the ability to run routes like a receiver.

But both Ingram and Kamara could thrive in the other player's role if asked.

"The versatility of these backs, that's what's getting exposed out there," Thomas said. "They're not just 3 yards, 4 yards and a cloud of dust. These are guys that you can match up on a linebacker or somebody that doesn't have the coverage skills and some of the backs have wide receiver skills. Those are the matchups that are being exploited."

---

Ingram is running headlong into another barrier for NFL backs.

Age.

While Bell, Gurley and the rest have broken down the barrier for young backs, the NFL is still loathe to invest in running backs approaching the age of 30.

Ingram is about to start his eighth season, only 734 yards away from breaking Deuce McAllister's franchise rushing record. Unlike some of the young stars at the position, Ingram had to wait to establish himself as a star in the NFL.

"Mark’s traveled a tougher road to get here," Brees said. "Beginning of his career, bitten by the injury bug, was kind of part of that backfield with Pierre (Thomas) and (Darren) Sproles, just kind of sharing time. We weren’t quite sure what we had until maybe year four or five from Mark."

Ingram didn't get more than 200 carries in a season until his fourth year; he didn't break the 1,000-yard mark until 2016, his sixth season.

"To his credit, he just stuck with it, got better and better and kind of turned himself from being a just between-the-tackles back to an every-down back," Brees said.

Now, coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons but facing a four-game suspension to open his eighth year in the NFL, Ingram is also headed into the final year of his contract and potentially the uncertainty of the free-agent market.

"Of course, I'd like an extension," Ingram said during the summer while explaining why his decision to stay away from voluntary practices wasn't contract-related.

Ingram has less tread on his tires than most backs his age. Because of the slow start to his career, the 1,183 carries he's taken in seven years is roughly similar to four years for a player like Bell, Gurley or Arizona's David Johnson.

Whether the Saints or another NFL team realize that and make an investment next spring likely depends on what he does this season.

---

Kamara might end up being a trailblazer of his own.

A second contract is probably still years away, given that Kamara only has one season — albeit a debut that generated about as much excitement as the opening night of a Star Wars movie — under his belt.

If he can continue to approximate the production of his rookie season, though, Kamara might have the chance to be the first so-called specialty back to earn big money.

Up until this point, the big-money backs have been the heavy-usage types, the bell cows given 400 touches per season.

Kamara proved last year that a running back can be just as devastating in roughly half the work. In just 201 touches last season, Kamara produced 1,554 yards from scrimmage, good for sixth in the NFL.

Essentially, he doesn't need as many touches as other backs to be just as productive.

"It's a good question, and it varies from offense to offense," Kamara said. "In some offenses, a back gets 15 carries, in some they get 20, in some they get 26. I think it all depends on the flow of the game, the skill set of the backs you have in your backfield, and then coaching preference."

New Orleans calls the position Kamara plays the "Joker," and in Payton's hands, it can be as unpredictable as Heath Ledger's villain in The Dark Knight.

"Every install day is big, because you're like a kid on Christmas. You're seeing what's in for the week and what you can do to exploit defenses."

NFL teams spent an entire season trying to figure out a way to stop what Kamara had already put on film; Payton and the coaching staff spent their time finding new ways to deploy their most versatile weapon.

"It was very strategic, the quality of my touches," Kamara said. "It was a lot of things that spread me out, in the slot, out wide. My runs were schemed up to where I could be successful. That's good coaching."

---

The NFL's new breed of multipurpose backs are far from the first of their kind. Running backs with receiver skills have been around since the 1980s.

"Roger Craig would be the one that comes to mind, and then it would be Marshall Faulk," Thomas said. "The guys that can be dual threat, 1,000-1,000 (guys), that's rare air up there."

The difference is that there are more players like that, and the game is better suited to their talents. NFL teams rarely line up in formations with a front-seven anymore; three and four-receiver sets open up defenses to backs who can make people miss in space.

All it took was a couple of transcendent talents to make the NFL realize the possibilities.

"The league is very stubborn, and it's very much a copycat league and the league is lazy in terms of how they think about things," Riddick said. "A lot of times, they say the same old drivel over and over: 'Running backs, you can find them anywhere.' 'Never draft a guard high.' 'Never draft tight end.' 'Safeties are a dime a dozen.' 'You don't need middle linebackers.' B.S., B.S., B.S."

Gurley's contract might be only the first. Gordon, Elliott and Johnson are all getting close to the end of their deals. If they stay healthy, there will be a top-tier running back in line for an extension on an annual basis.

And if a back can make a defense pay between the tackles, on the perimeter and in the passing game, he's far more valuable to an offense than a player like Kansas City receiver Sammy Watkins or Los Angeles's Brandin Cooks, who both just got $16 million per season to essentially be deep threats.

"If you have all those things going for you, you'll get a top-of-the-market contract, Riddick said. "Because of the way the game is now, you have to have guys like Le'Veon Bell, guys who have skill sets like Devonta Freeman, (Le'Sean) McCoy, Alvin Kamara, because the game is set up for those guys to flourish."

All of these superstar backs talk to each other. When Gurley got his deal, it felt like water breaking through a dam.

Nobody needed to tell these guys how valuable they are, but their bank accounts needed to reflect it.

"We just do so much, man, as far as blocking, catching, running the ball," Gordon, the Chargers' star, said. "Our value should be high. I'm glad we had the type of backs to change that. I'll be happy when my time comes."

He won't be the only one.

foreverfan · 09-06-2018, 12:13 PM

Originally Posted by jeanpierre

[B][I]BY JOEL A. ERICKSON | [email]
New Orleans calls the position Kamara plays the "Joker," and in Payton's hands, it can be as unpredictable as Heath Ledger's villain in The Dark Knight.

09-06-2018, 10:57 AM	#1
Threaded by jeanpierre Site Donor 2018 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Thibodaux Posts: 43,543 Blog Entries: 39 Rating: (0 votes - average) Twitter
Views: 1235

09-06-2018, 10:58 AM	#2
jeanpierre Site Donor 2018 Join Date: Mar 2008 Location: Thibodaux Posts: 43,543 Blog Entries: 39	Re: Rebirth: Saints RBs Mark Ingram, Alvin Kamara special part of NFL revolution BY JOEL A. ERICKSON \| JERICKSON@THEADVOCATE.COM SEP 5, 2018 - 8:40 PM Five years ago, the running back position felt like an anachronistic afterthought in the NFL, still useful but far from a priority as quarterbacks took over for good as the faces of football. Two first rounds came and went without a running back being taken. The second time it happened, the draft wound its way down to the 54th pick before the Titans selected Bishop Sankey. Teams shied away from spending big money on the position in free agency, content to assemble affordable, specialized committees like the ones favored by the New England Patriots and the New Orleans Saints. Turns out, the demise of the running back was greatly exaggerated. That fall, a second-year back from Michigan State who Pittsburgh picked up in the second round in 2013 finished second in the NFL with 1,361 yards rushing, and he added 83 catches for 854 yards. By the end of the season, Le'Veon Bell was the engine that made an offense with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown run. Perhaps envisioning the same kind of impact, the Rams broke the two-year drought of running backs in the first round by drafting Georgia's Todd Gurley with the No. 10 pick, and the Chargers followed suit by taking Wisconsin's Melvin Gordon at No. 17. Ezekiel Elliott got running backs back into the top five in 2016, Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffrey both came off the board in the top 10 in 2017. And six running backs were taken in the first 45 picks in April, led by Penn State superstar Saquon Barkley at No. 2. "They're even more valuable than ever," ESPN analyst and former NFL front office man Louis Riddick said. "If there's a Saquon Barkley-type coming out in the draft, it's a function of the marketplace in terms of what price you pay to get them. You can't sit there and say, 'I'm never going to draft a running back in the first round. I'm just going to wait.' You're not going to get a guy like that. He's a once-in-a-lifetime type of guy." All that was missing was the money. While teams invested pricy draft capital in superstar backs, the money lagged behind a little; the last big deal was the seven-year, $100 million contract Minnesota gave to Adrian Peterson in 2011. Bell has held out of training camp the past two seasons, forced to play under the franchise tag but unable to get the long-term deal he wants from the Steelers. Once again, Gurley broke the drought. Right before training camp, the Rams signed Gurley to a four-year, $60 million deal, blowing the roof off the market and putting a smile on the face of every talented back around the NFL. "We're a family," Saints running back Mark Ingram said. "All of us are extremely happy with Todd's deal. He deserves it as offensive MVP last year. They have been trying to devalue the running back position, but running backs are an offensive weapon. Running backs everywhere are happy to see Todd's deal." --- A new development for running backs emerged last season in the unlikely city of New Orleans, a pass-happy haven for more than a decade under Drew Brees and Sean Payton. New Orleans had always taken a committee approach to the position. Three, sometimes four backs, deployed to take advantage of their best traits in hyper-specific situations. Four games into the 2017 season, the Saints whittled the committee down to two and perfected it. For years, teams that employed tandems built them under a "Thunder and Lightning" theme, mixing a bruiser with a burner. Ingram and Alvin Kamara can do it all. "It's a position that, when it's used the correct way, it can be dominant," Saints running backs coach Joel Thomas said. "You saw our success we had last year." Ingram and Kamara do play different roles. Ingram takes most of his carries between the tackles; Kamara gets his on the perimeter and has the ability to run routes like a receiver. But both Ingram and Kamara could thrive in the other player's role if asked. "The versatility of these backs, that's what's getting exposed out there," Thomas said. "They're not just 3 yards, 4 yards and a cloud of dust. These are guys that you can match up on a linebacker or somebody that doesn't have the coverage skills and some of the backs have wide receiver skills. Those are the matchups that are being exploited." --- Ingram is running headlong into another barrier for NFL backs. Age. While Bell, Gurley and the rest have broken down the barrier for young backs, the NFL is still loathe to invest in running backs approaching the age of 30. Ingram is about to start his eighth season, only 734 yards away from breaking Deuce McAllister's franchise rushing record. Unlike some of the young stars at the position, Ingram had to wait to establish himself as a star in the NFL. "Mark’s traveled a tougher road to get here," Brees said. "Beginning of his career, bitten by the injury bug, was kind of part of that backfield with Pierre (Thomas) and (Darren) Sproles, just kind of sharing time. We weren’t quite sure what we had until maybe year four or five from Mark." Ingram didn't get more than 200 carries in a season until his fourth year; he didn't break the 1,000-yard mark until 2016, his sixth season. "To his credit, he just stuck with it, got better and better and kind of turned himself from being a just between-the-tackles back to an every-down back," Brees said. Now, coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons but facing a four-game suspension to open his eighth year in the NFL, Ingram is also headed into the final year of his contract and potentially the uncertainty of the free-agent market. "Of course, I'd like an extension," Ingram said during the summer while explaining why his decision to stay away from voluntary practices wasn't contract-related. Ingram has less tread on his tires than most backs his age. Because of the slow start to his career, the 1,183 carries he's taken in seven years is roughly similar to four years for a player like Bell, Gurley or Arizona's David Johnson. Whether the Saints or another NFL team realize that and make an investment next spring likely depends on what he does this season. --- Kamara might end up being a trailblazer of his own. A second contract is probably still years away, given that Kamara only has one season — albeit a debut that generated about as much excitement as the opening night of a Star Wars movie — under his belt. If he can continue to approximate the production of his rookie season, though, Kamara might have the chance to be the first so-called specialty back to earn big money. Up until this point, the big-money backs have been the heavy-usage types, the bell cows given 400 touches per season. Kamara proved last year that a running back can be just as devastating in roughly half the work. In just 201 touches last season, Kamara produced 1,554 yards from scrimmage, good for sixth in the NFL. Essentially, he doesn't need as many touches as other backs to be just as productive. "It's a good question, and it varies from offense to offense," Kamara said. "In some offenses, a back gets 15 carries, in some they get 20, in some they get 26. I think it all depends on the flow of the game, the skill set of the backs you have in your backfield, and then coaching preference." New Orleans calls the position Kamara plays the "Joker," and in Payton's hands, it can be as unpredictable as Heath Ledger's villain in The Dark Knight. "Every install day is big, because you're like a kid on Christmas. You're seeing what's in for the week and what you can do to exploit defenses." NFL teams spent an entire season trying to figure out a way to stop what Kamara had already put on film; Payton and the coaching staff spent their time finding new ways to deploy their most versatile weapon. "It was very strategic, the quality of my touches," Kamara said. "It was a lot of things that spread me out, in the slot, out wide. My runs were schemed up to where I could be successful. That's good coaching." --- The NFL's new breed of multipurpose backs are far from the first of their kind. Running backs with receiver skills have been around since the 1980s. "Roger Craig would be the one that comes to mind, and then it would be Marshall Faulk," Thomas said. "The guys that can be dual threat, 1,000-1,000 (guys), that's rare air up there." The difference is that there are more players like that, and the game is better suited to their talents. NFL teams rarely line up in formations with a front-seven anymore; three and four-receiver sets open up defenses to backs who can make people miss in space. All it took was a couple of transcendent talents to make the NFL realize the possibilities. "The league is very stubborn, and it's very much a copycat league and the league is lazy in terms of how they think about things," Riddick said. "A lot of times, they say the same old drivel over and over: 'Running backs, you can find them anywhere.' 'Never draft a guard high.' 'Never draft tight end.' 'Safeties are a dime a dozen.' 'You don't need middle linebackers.' B.S., B.S., B.S." Gurley's contract might be only the first. Gordon, Elliott and Johnson are all getting close to the end of their deals. If they stay healthy, there will be a top-tier running back in line for an extension on an annual basis. And if a back can make a defense pay between the tackles, on the perimeter and in the passing game, he's far more valuable to an offense than a player like Kansas City receiver Sammy Watkins or Los Angeles's Brandin Cooks, who both just got $16 million per season to essentially be deep threats. "If you have all those things going for you, you'll get a top-of-the-market contract, Riddick said. "Because of the way the game is now, you have to have guys like Le'Veon Bell, guys who have skill sets like Devonta Freeman, (Le'Sean) McCoy, Alvin Kamara, because the game is set up for those guys to flourish." All of these superstar backs talk to each other. When Gurley got his deal, it felt like water breaking through a dam. Nobody needed to tell these guys how valuable they are, but their bank accounts needed to reflect it. "We just do so much, man, as far as blocking, catching, running the ball," Gordon, the Chargers' star, said. "Our value should be high. I'm glad we had the type of backs to change that. I'll be happy when my time comes." He won't be the only one. foreverfan and SmashMouth like this.
	It's not that my way is the right way, I just make the right way my way...

09-06-2018, 12:13 PM	#3
foreverfan 12,000 BS Posts Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Metairie, LA Posts: 13,457 Blog Entries: 5	Re: Rebirth: Saints RBs Mark Ingram, Alvin Kamara special part of NFL revolution Originally Posted by jeanpierre [B][I]BY JOEL A. ERICKSON \| [email] New Orleans calls the position Kamara plays the "Joker," and in Payton's hands, it can be as unpredictable as Heath Ledger's villain in The Dark Knight. K Major likes this.

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