The good news is Alvin Kamara avoided a major knee injury that would have kept him out for an extended period of time. The bad news is the New Orleans Saints will still have to play the season opener without the running back. On the heels of the Jordyn Tyson news, the Saints suffered another tough blow in joint practice with the Dallas Cowboys.
Per ESPN's Adam Schefter, Kamara will miss at least the next month with a sprained MCL. A month from today would keep the running back out until a day before the second game of the season, but four weeks would have him possibly returning in the middle of the week. Those couple of days makes a difference, but regardless, that gives a timeline of missing the first 1-2 games due to this injury.
The injuries are beginning to pile up for the Saints. Tyson and Kamara got injured within the last week, and Quincy Riley left the second joint practice with an injury as well. Bryan Bresee and Dillon Radunz are out for the season, notably healthy Cam Jordan is in danger of missing the season opener, and that's not even all the injuries on the front line.
Saints are losing the duos that were supposed to make the offense special
The Tyson and Kamara injuries are particularly devastating because it strips away what gave this offense the potential to be special. The Saints had one of the best running back duos in the league, and a wide receiver duo with the ceiling to be one of the best in the league as well.
The injuries don't take away from the Saints ability to be a good offense. Travis Etienne and Chris Olave are still good players, but the aspect of having two players at each position added an extra layer that took the offense's ceiling to special.
Kamara's injury is less severe, so we will still see the Etienne-Kamara connection soon. In the meantime, it'll be interesting to see how that split works with Etienne and whoever his running mate is. The battle for RB3 has been riddled with injuries, but they're all young players who could use the game or two that Kamara misses to make an impression.
Unfortunately, whether it's Audric Estime, Kendre Miller or Devin Neal, none of them give the Saints the same two headed monster as Etienne and Kamara. The Saints paid Etienne to be the lead back, so losing Kamara can't push the run game from deadly to mundane.
The ceiling has lowered because of certain disguises and high end rotation that just isn't at the Saints' disposal anymore, but Etienne makes this loss much easier to stomach.
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