After studying the 2017 season in depth there has to be a guide or blueprint to build a team in 2018. The New Orleans Saints were close for sure. However, close isn’t good enough for Who Dat Nation. Sometimes the difference between a Super Bowl and being the runner up can be a matter of a few feet. The Tennessee Titans found out all too well in XXXIV on January 30th, 2000. They came up a yard short to send the game into overtime as time ran out. Above all, the NFL is the game of inches. And having Alvin Kamara 6.0 is one of those keys for the 2018 New Orleans Saints.
Alvin Kamara 6.0 is one of the five blueprints for another Super Bowl run
Alvin Kamara is already is part of an elite club
Perhaps these names ring a bell: Barry Sanders, O.J. Simpson, Gale Sayers, and Jim Brown. Sure, all of the running backs are Hall of Famers. These three running backs have had some of the greatest careers and remarkable seasons. Here is a top 10 list of the greatest NFL seasons by Bleacher Report.
A case can be made for any one of those running backs to be the best ever. And there’s no way that Kamara should even be mentioned in the same breath as any of these players. While that is true, Kamara accomplished something in 2017 that is beyond rare. Those four Hall of Famers surpassed the 6.0 yards per carry only ONCE in their illustrious careers.
Alvin Kamara did this in his rookie year. Kamara rushed for 728 yards on 120 rushing attempts for a 6.1 yards per carry average. That’s not even mentioning his 81 receptions for 826 yards. This is simply off the charts.
Of course, there will be naysayers. His 128 carries don’t compare with some of the backs that carried the ball 200-300 times or more. However, remember he was a rookie. And this year there are going to be more opportunities early on as Mark Ingram is out the first four games.
It’s unfathomable to see another season with that high of a yard per carry in 2018. Still, taking a yard off would be a heck of an accomplishment. Alvin Kamara 5.0 surely would have defenses trying to stack the box too. If that happens, Drew Brees is gonna be picking the defenses apart.
Unstoppable Offense
There’s simply no way any defense stands a chance if Kamara keeps chiming in with large chunks of yardage on running plays. Also, this continued barrage of pounding the ball sets up play action passes. Getting the defensive backs to bite on a possible running play can open up some bombs thrown downfield. Once again, simply impossible to stop.
Furthermore, when Mark Ingram comes back, that doubles the trouble from the backfield. Ingram ran for 1,124 yards on 230 carries, which was just under five yards per clip. And just think, this is not even taking into consideration Kamara or Ingram catching passes out of the backfield.
Everything runs smoother with a high octane “crash and dash” running attack. This is the first blueprint and the foundation for the other building blocks for another deep run into the playoffs. Next blueprint, Last Word on the NFL moves to the other side of the ball and investigates the defensive blueprint for 2018.
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