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The Saints backfield


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The Saints backfield poll  

36 members have voted

  1. 1. Which Saints back are you most likely to draft?

    • Mark Ingram (#27 RB ADP) - Career best 2016.
      3
    • Adrian Peterson (#31 ADP) - Sleeper stud back?
      8
    • Alvin Kamara (#36 ADP) - Youth and upside. And catches.
      1
    • No thanks. This is going to be a mess.
      20


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The Saints backfield ranked #1 in total running back fantasy points (PPR) for 2016. That was the career best year for Mark Ingram and mostly just help from Tim Hightower who is now gone. John Kuhn did score 5 times as well.

 

This year the schedule is better and Hightower is gone. Ingram is back but now Adrian Peterson is there as well. Peterson is 32 now and 2016 was a bust thanks to a meniscus injury. Did have around 1600 total yards and 11 TDs in 2015. Signed for $7 million for 2 years with $3.5 million guaranteed this year. Ingram gets $3 million this year.

 

Peterson is much more like Ingram than Hightower.

 

Oh yes, and the Saints moved up in the third round to get Alvin Kamara. He's probably in line for Hightower work if only eventually.

 

What are you doing with this backfield? This was #1 in total fantasy points last year. There is fantasy value here.

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I would have never guessed that the Saints running backs collectively scored the most fantasy points last year.  Many pass-first teams have payed lip service to improving their run game but Sean Payton with trading for Max Unger and trading away Jimmy Graham and Brandin Cooks and now signing Peterson has truly backed up the talk.  Another back in the mix is Travaris Cadet who had 40 receptions last year and will take a lot of the 3rd down snaps further diluting the value of Ingram and Peterson.  I like Ingram more since he'll get more receptions than Peterson, but I think I'm more likely to draft Adrian Peterson with his adp of 93 than Ingram with his adp of 54.  Drafting both and waiting for things to shake out would come cheaply.  I also think there is still a chance that Ingram gets traded since he is in a contract year and probably demanding big money.  Or maybe Payton likes having two studs each getting 200 carries.

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For me this is a situation that I will not target to get, nor would I try to avoid the situation entirely. I would say I am more likely to end up with Peterson at his much later ADP as the lottery ticket over Ingram at his current ADP, even though in my opinion at this point I would guess that Ingram is likely to have greater production this year, the risk/value of the selections makes Peterson a more attractive option to me.

 

I'm not yet sold on Kamara or any of the other backs having enough value this year to warrant drafting in all but the deepest of redraft leagues.

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Where there's smoke, there's fire.  But the one on fire might be the next guy over.  I still think it's Ingram that could get traded.  I have trouble believing that Adrian Peterson would sign with the Saints to play second fiddle or be an equal partner to Ingram.  Ingram is entering the final year of his contract without any talk of an extension.  With how well he has played, he probably wants big money.  Payton has shown he has no problem trading a star in their prime e.g. Jimmy Graham and Brandin Cooks.  Cadet is a favorite of Payton and due to earn the veteran minimum (which gets a deduction against the salary cap).  Peterson on early downs, Cadet on third downs, and Kamara backing them both up is a nice backfield.

 

Saints explore trading Travaris Cadet

 

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 10, 2017, 4:56 PM EDT

 

Just three months after signing him to a one-year contract, the Saints are exploring trading running back Travaris Cadet.

The Saints are considering trying to trade Cadet before camp, Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle reports.

In March Cadet signed a one-year, $855,000 contract with an $80,000 signing bonus, so he’d be affordable for any team that’s interested in acquiring him in a trade, and inexpensive for the Saints to release if no team wants to trade for him.

Last year the Saints used Cadet primarily as a receiver out of the backfield, and he caught 40 passes for 281 yards and four touchdowns. When they re-signed him they envisioned a similar role for him this year, but since then New Orleans has signed Adrian Peterson and drafted Alvin Kamara, making the running back depth chart a lot more crowded. Cadet may be the odd man out.

Edited by michaelredd9
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The Saints running backs were collectively the number one scoring backfield last year entirely because of receiving points.  The Saints were 19th in rushing attempts with 404, 16th in rushing yards with 1,742, and 6th in rushing touchdowns with 17 (sorry, rushing stats include quarterbacks and wide receivers but are still a close approximation).  More importantly, the Saints running backs collectively had 127 receptions, 884 yards receiving and 10 receiving touchdowns.  Two Mark Ingram stats that jump out are that he has the best catch percentage of any running back over the last 3 years at 90% and the best drop percentage of any running back over the last 3 years at 1.57%.  Also, Ingram is very good at pass protection and Peterson is very bad at pass protection.  Trading Ingram will hurt the Saints without question.  They aren't going to trade him without getting some real value in return.

 

Mark Ingram had some ups and downs in 2016.  He was benched after only 5 carries in the week 8 game against Seattle because he fumbled.  He had fumbled the week before against Kansas City, too.  To be fair to Ingram, those were his only two fumbles of the year and he had never had more than 1 lost fumble in any of his previous 5 seasons.  Yet, Payton didn't play him in the last 3 quarters of the Seattle game and started Hightower the next week against San Francisco.  But that wasn't the end of the Mark Ingram drama in 2016.  In week 15, Ingram had a complete meltdown on the sidelines when the Saints were up 48-34 against Arizona.  He was upset because Hightower was getting all of the goal-line looks (Hightower had just scored his second goal-line touchdown of the game).  To be fair to Ingram, the Saints had a record of 5-8 and were already eliminated from the playoffs.  Hightower had been horrible at goal-line situations previously in the year including failing to score from the 1 yard-line 5 times in the game against Seattle when Ingram had been benched.  It was pretty doushy of Payton to not give Ingram any goal-line looks in a meaningless game when Ingram only had 3 rushing touchdowns on the year and was playing for a new contract.  Ingram did get 3 rushing touchdowns in the following 2 weeks including 2 goal-line touchdowns.

 

I've always felt that Sean Payton has tried to emulate Bill Belichick.  Bill Belichick takes no guff from players.  If a player thinks he is bigger than the team, Belichick sends that player packing regardless if they are a star or not.  Brandin Cooks publicly complained about not getting enough targets after getting 0 targets in the Saints' 49-21 win over the Rams in week 12.  He said "closed mouths don't get fed."  Apparently open mouths change zip codes because Brandin Cooks was sent packing.  Mark Ingram's week 7 benching already showed some discord between Payton and Ingram.  Ingram's week 15 sideline meltdown may have punched his ticket out of town.

Edited by michaelredd9
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Quote

 

open mouths change zip codes


 

 

That made me laugh.

 

I too wonder about the whole Peterson/Ingram thing and I get the sense that Ingram is falling from favor. Couple that with Peterson impressing so far and this could be very interesting.

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I'm not confident that, at 32, Peterson can stay on the field even with a reduced workload.  I wouldn't reach for Ingram, but I would take him before Peterson.  Kamara is worth keeping an eye on, but do you think that Payton would trust Brees' protection to a rookie on passing downs?  That might tell the story by the time we're drafting.

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On 6/12/2017 at 6:18 PM, CowboysDiehard said:

do you think that Payton would trust Brees' protection to a rookie on passing downs?

 

Kamara being a great receiving running back doesn't mean he needs to play on 3rd-downs.  The Saints pass to their running backs more on 1st and 2nd down than 3rd down.  The Saints' running back reception breakdown from 2016 is 42 receptions on 1st-down, 56 receptions on 2nd-down, and 29 receptions on 3rd-down.  Ingram is by far their best 3rd-down running back being both a great receiver and great at pass protection.  He truly is the ideal running back for the Saints' pass-heavy attack.  If Ingram gets traded, the Saints don't really have another running back that is good at pass protection.  My guess is that Cadet would be the 3rd-down back because he is more experienced at pass protection than Kamara and not god-awful at pass protection like AD.

Edited by michaelredd9
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