SmashMouth

Bring up Alvin Kamara’s name around the New Orleans Saints training facility, and a mantra starts to become clear.

Quarterback Drew Brees said, “I think his time is coming.”

Left tackle Terron Armstead said, “One of those games where he just explodes and goes crazy, it’s coming soon.”

Head coach Sean Payton said, “His best football this season’s ahead of him.”

When this trend was pointed out to Kamara himself he responded in kind, “Oh yeah, it’ll come. It’ll come.”

All of these responses, in some way, are answers to the question Where has Alvin Kamara been?



It’s not like he just disappeared. In five games since returning from ankle and knee injuries that cost him two games, he’s averaging 85 scrimmage yards per game. He had four straight games averaging better than 4.9 yards per carry before coming back to Earth last week against a San Francisco defense that held him to 25 yards on 13 carries. He’s averaging 97.6 scrimmage yards per game, which isn’t too far off the pace he set last year (106.1) or in his Rookie of the Year campaign (97.1).

Maybe it’s not a matter of raw numbers, but rather one of panache. The big plays that vaulted Kamara toward superstardom — the broken tackles, the 40-yard zig-zags through flailing defenses, especially the touchdowns — have been fewer and more far between this season.

Fairly or unfairly, the question lingers in reporter’s notebooks and on Saints’ fans fingertips.

Oh, Kamara has seen the conspiracy theories online that he’s simply not happy anymore now that his good friend Mark Ingram is playing for the Baltimore Ravens. He quickly dispelled that idea when he spoke in front of his locker Friday.

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