New Orleans Saints: Who will be the 2021 Team MVP?

Your New Orleans Saints’ MVP prediction for 2021 is….Drew Brees.

Just kidding, even though Brees did take a massive pay cut last year to help the Saints’ salary cap situation. I keep forgetting he’s not on the team anymore.

The real and non-retired Saints’ team MVP this season could very well be Alvin Kamara.

The writers at CBS Sports compiled a list of MVP predictions for each NFC team and chose the four-time Pro Bowl running back as the Saints’ most valuable player.

It’s not too hard to see why.

At 25 years old, Kamara has already distinguished himself in the league with some pretty jaw-dropping honors. He’s the only running back in league history to catch more than 80 passes in four consecutive seasons. He’s joined by Pierre Thomas in the Saints records books as the only players in history to accumulate more than 5,000 combined rushing and receiving yards.

Not to mention Kamara is a couple seasons away from setting the Saints’ all-time record for touchdowns scored by a runner, receiver, and returner. He’s got 62, just ten shy of Marques “Quiet Storm” Colston’s 72.

All stats considered, Kamara is primed to have another huge year with Saints, and New Orleans will need every inch the star running back will give them. Still out of a No. 1 receiver target and with no end to the Winston-Hill quarterback battle in sight, the Saints only have one surefire offensive strategy. Give the ball to Kamara.

Alvin Kamara projected to be New Orleans Saints’ 2021 Team MVP

Fingers crossed that Michael Thomas will remain healthy this year, and who knows if Tre’Quan Smith will ever have his breakout year (don’t count on it). The dual threat of Terron Armstead and Ryan Ramczyk remains one of the most lethal in the league, but those two alone won’t win games.

It’s extremely depressing to list the reasons why all the other Saints players might have a disappointing 2021 season, so back to Kamara.

Last season, due to an injured Thomas, Kamara carried nearly the entire weight of the Saints’ passing attack on his shoulders. He led the team with a career-high 83 receptions, resulting in a team-high 756 receiving yards. You would think opponents would have caught on to the Saints’ Kamara-headed offensive game plan, but the more Kamara was utilized, the more he achieved. By the season’s end he finished just short of his first thousand-yard campaign with a career-high 932 rushing yards.

As a double-edged running and pass-catching threat, Kamara showed the world exactly what he was made of last Christmas Day against the Minnesota Vikings. He rushed for a career-best 155 yards and scored a ridiculous six rushing touchdowns, trying a NFL record that had been set in 1929. Check out the replay of his fourth TD:

That’s probably enough Kamara fandom for one day. (No, I want more!) You’ll just have to patiently wait until next season to see what Kamara will achieve next. Team MVP? More like Super Bowl MVP.

Here’s hoping.