Alvin Kamara: Should fantasy owners be worried moving forward?

Should Alvin Kamara’s fantasy owners be worried about his limited running production over the past couple of weeks?

New Orleans Saints star running back Alvin Kamara went down with a knee/ankle injury earlier in the year that led him to miss two weeks. That hurt fantasy owners that drafted him with a high-value pick.

While on the sidelines, his backup Latavius Murray ran for over 100 yards in both of those outings. He showed that not only can a Saints rusher rush for over 100 yards in a game, but he also raised the question, “What have the Saints been missing out on?” by not involving Murray more.

Kamara is yet to rush for over 100 yards in ANY game this season.

He is only averaging 59 rushing yards per game. Which, out of Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey (105.9), Dalvin Cook (92.5), and Ezekiel Elliot (83.3), ranks dead last. Last year, Kamara averaged 58.9 yards per game, and in his rookie season, he averaged 45.5 rushing yards per game.

Honestly, among top running backs, that is not good. According to Yahoo!’s PPR fantasy system, Kamara is not even top 10 in points this season among running backs. In non-PPR, Kamara barely cracks the top 20 in fantasy points to running backs this year.

Although it’s important to again note he hasn’t played in three games this season (two injured and one on the team’s bye).

I would say that owners have the right to be worried about Kamara and his production going forward. In non-PPR, He has only had three games over 10 points in a game. In PPR, he ends up salvaging most of his points via receiving out of the backfield.

Looking at the New Orleans Saints schedule remaining, they only play two teams that are in the 1-15 rank of most points to running backs.

Besides those two games (which are both against Carolina), they play Atlanta’s defense, which Kamara ran for 24 yards in week 10; San Fransisco, which is ranked best run defense in the league; Indianapolis, which is ranked 5th best run defense in the league; and Tennessee, which is ranked 13th best run defense in the league.

I would say that for a non-PPR owner of Alvin Kamara, his rest of season is pretty dismal in who he plays and the potential he has of even having a 100+ rushing game this season. It hurts, even more, to know that in the two games Alvin Kamara was sidelined, Latavius Murray ran for over 100 yards in BOTH of the games.

In NO way am I suggesting that Murray is better than Kamara, but in a non-PPR league, Kamara is no better than a low-floor RB1 or high RB2. In PPR, Kamara will continue to pick up his running slack as he catches between 6-10 passes out of the backfield per game.