ESPN Explains Alvin Kamara’s Saints Usage Over Travis Etienne
· Yahoo Sports
The New Orleans Saints picked up one of the most impressive wins of the early NFL season on Sunday in Week 2 when they went to Baltimore and knocked off the Ravens, 24-17.
They did it despite curious running back usage in the first half, when they gave Alvin Kamara five times the touches that they gave big-money signing Travis Etienne.
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It was the kind of split that had everyone confused.
Saints fans wondered why they’d signed this new RB if he wasn’t playing.
Fantasy football players wanted to know why Etienne wasn’t getting them more yards.
Even Ravens fans were probably a little curious why Kamara kept getting the ball to gain so few yards.
And while there hasn’t been a perfect explanation out there, ESPN’s Bill Barnwell offered some thoughts in his new column on Monday morning.
Alvin Kamara vs. Travis Etienne
Etienne may have done himself no favors with an early bobble that cost him yardage.
“Against the Ravens, Etienne bobbled a pitch from Shough and lost 7 yards on the opening play of the second quarter,” Barnwell writes. “He didn’t play for most of the next drive, and at one point, the returning Alvin Kamara had 10 touches to Etienne’s two.”
The problem, as Barnwell goes on to point out, is that Kamara wasn’t doing anything with those touches.
“That might have been a good idea if Kamara were productive, but those 10 touches produced a total of 17 yards,” Barnwell writes. “Saints backs eventually finished with 42 rushing yards on 18 carries, leaving (Tyler) Shough to shoulder the workload.”
The stats overall for the Saints’ running game have not been good.
“Saints backs are 29th in yards per carry and 22nd in success rate so far this season, and what was expected to be a Travis Etienne Jr.-led backfield has been much more of a committee,” Barnwell writes. “Etienne played just 58% of the snaps in Week 1, and while that might have been a necessity on a day when the fast-paced Saints ran 90 snaps in a game that went into overtime, Etienne was splitting carries with Kendre Miller and CJ Donaldson throughout the contest.”
The Saints clearly haven’t gotten to the bottom of their RB room yet. In Week 1, they gave Kendre Miller nine carries, and in Week 2, he wasn’t even active.
Still, the Etienne usage has been the most confusing.
Travis Etienne Contract
The Saints signed Etienne to a four-year contract for $52 million. It brought him away from the Jacksonville Jaguars, the only NFL team he had ever played for, to join the Saints in his home state of New Orleans.
It felt like a changing of the guard, one that would move Kamara into a much-lesser role.
Kamara, on the flip side, had his contract restructured this offseason just to stay on the Saints. They would’ve cut him otherwise.
And yet there Kamara was, in his first game back from injury, with 10 touches in Sunday’s first half to Etienne’s 2. Usually the money talks, but here it didn’t — and until Week 3 reveals more trends, it’ll be quite confusing.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
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