By: John Sigler | May 24, 2019 5:11 pm ET



New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees has shared the backfield with Mark Ingram the last eight years, but he’s comfortable embracing change with the addition of Latavius Murray. After the first few days of practice with Murray and lead back Alvin Kamara, Brees has already seen how Murray can fit in with what the Saints do best.



“Thunder and lightning,” Brees answered when prompted to describe how Murray’s skills complement Kamara’s. “Look around the league. You have that running back room that typically brings different skillsets and you are able to mix and match. I think our offense is proven that we do a lot of things with two backs in the game. It just gives us a lot of flexibility and gives a lot for the defense to have to worry about and game plan for. Again, we’re only three days into it, but I’m impressed with what I’ve seen with him as well.”



Murray boasts a very similar skill set to the departed Ingram, as far as flourishing in short-yardage situations and finding success inside the 20-yard line. Over the last three years, the only players with more touchdown runs than Murray (26) are Ezekiel Elliott (28), Melvin Gordon (29) and Todd Gurley (36). In that same time frame, Ingram recorded 24.



Murray has also built a reputation as a strong asset on passing downs, holding up in protection (he ranked 15th in the NFL last year, per Pro Football Focus). PFF also credited him with not dropping a single pass or fumbling last season. The Saints have seen Murray’s efforts firsthand with both the Minnesota Vikings (2017 and 2018) and the Oakland Raiders (2016), which factored into coach Sean Payton’s evaluation.



“Well, we had seen him (with) two different clubs,” Payton said. “First off, he has great football makeup. He’s smart. He has real good speed and he’s a downhill runner. I think he fits with what we’re trying to do.”



https://saintswire.usatoday.com/2019...=recirc-latest

Ingram was very good, but come playoff time he just disappeared.

Two straight years when we needed to establish a running game to take some pressure off Drew in the Playoffs, Ingram was nowhere to be seen.

Great guy, great player and teammate, but meh....not the end of the world.

Do you think some of that could be attributed to the injuries along the O-line the last two years? If so we've brought in strong competition all along the line so that we can open holes each and every game.

Do you think some of that could be attributed to the injuries along the O-line the last two years? If so we've brought in strong competition all along the line so that we can open holes each and every game.

It's easy to disappear when the scheme shifted more to Kamara. No reason to discredit Ingram to boost up Murray. As a true saints fan if I had the choice Ingram over Murray, I would pick Ingram with no hesitation. We have Murray and I BELIEVE he can get the job done. Difference if we had Ingram i KNOW the job would be done.