After spending the first eight years of his career with the New Orleans Saints, Mark Ingram decided to take his talents to the Baltimore Ravens in 2019. Ingram spent 2018 splitting snaps but is now in one of the most run-heavy offenses in the NFL. Can he take his game to another level with Baltimore, or will the change of scenery ultimately hurt his final stat line?
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2019 Fantasy Football Outlook: Mark Ingram
2018 Recap
After missing the first four games of the season, Mark Ingram returned to the field to serve as the thunder to Alvin Kamara’s lightning. While Kamara was the star, Ingram managed to stay fantasy relevant in his own right. During his 12 games on the field, Ingram recorded 645 rushing yards and six touchdowns on 138 rushing attempts. Additionally, the former first-round pick added another 21 receptions for 170 yards and a touchdown. These numbers made him the RB20 from Week Five onward in PPR formats.
From a consistency standpoint, Mark Ingram was everything you could hope for out of a guy splitting carries. Ingram had six games in which he recorded over 10 points, including three where he scored more than 20 points. He rarely burned you, as he only scored fewer than seven points in three of his 12 games. This is remarkable consistency considering the fact he was clearly second-fiddle to Kamara. A big reason for Ingram’s success is that he made every touch matter, as evidenced by his 55% success rate on carries.
Ingram thrived as a complementary piece in the offense, but he’s previously demonstrated the ability to be a workhorse. Back in 2017, Ingram recorded 230 carries for 1,124 yards and 12 touchdowns while finishing as the RB6 in standard-scoring formats. He’s also had two other seasons where he’s recorded over 200 carries, so he can handle a full-season workload.
2019 Projection
Just about everything that could change for Ingram, has changed. Instead of playing one of the best passers of all-time in Drew Brees, Ingram will now be working with Lamar Jackson. Lamar Jackson is a lot of things, but a polished passer is not one of them. This will probably end up helping Ingram, as Baltimore should utilize a run-heavy approach in 2019. Last year with Jackson under center, Baltimore averaged a ridiculous 230 rushing yards per game, with 150 of those yards coming from running backs.
Despite the success of their ground game, the Ravens felt that they needed to upgrade the position. John Harbaugh loves to use a committee approach in the backfield, but Ingram’s three-year, $15 million contract ensures he’ll see a good portion of the work. With how often the Ravens run the ball, Ingram can easily be a weekly starter even if he’s only seeing 50-60% of the carries.
Ingram is one of the safer players to draft, but he does carry some risk. For one, he’s entering his age-30 season. Running backs have the shortest shelf life of any position, and Ingram is already on borrowed time. Gus Edwards performed admirably with Jackson under center and Baltimore also invested a fourth-round pick in running back Justice Hill. If Ingram starts to show his age, Baltimore won’t hesitate to move forward with the younger players. Additionally, Ingram isn’t a remarkably gifted pass-catcher, and catching passes from Lamar Jackson is going to be harder than catching passes from Drew Brees.
Mark Ingram Average Draft Position
Fantasy Football Calculator currently projects Ingram to go off the board with the 46th pick in PPR formats. This places him in the same tier as running backs like Phillip Lindsay, Kenyan Drake, and Sony Michel. Ingram’s a better pick than Michel, but you could make an argument for Kenyan Drake and Lindsay.
Selecting Ingram over Drake, in particular, comes down to how much you value a high floor versus a high ceiling. Thanks to his pass-catching prowess, Drake has better odds to finish as an RB1. Ingram doesn’t have that same ceiling, but his presence in a run-heavy offense gives him a notably safe floor. Unless age rapidly catches up to him, Ingram should be a safe start just about every week. If you’re already set at running back in the fourth round, go for the high-upside option. If you load up at receiver early and need some security at running back, make Ingram your guy.
