The New Orleans Saints are riding a five-game losing streak and are desperate to stay in the NFC playoff race in Week 14.
Getting healthy is key and the Saints have been struggling without Alvin Kamara on the field.
He has not played since Week 9 because of a knee injury and the quarterbacks have suffered without him in the backfield.
The Saints are set to take on the lowly New York Jets in Week 14 and got some good news regarding Kamara and quarterback Taysom Hill.
However, running back Mark Ingram represents the bad news of the week.
From TNF First Look: The #Saints are getting Alvin Kamara back, but not as good news for Mark Ingram. pic.twitter.com/KX0xfGBaQD
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 9, 2021
So the Saints are getting Kamara back, but are likely losing Ingram because of COVID-19.
Hill is also expected to play with what has been described as “mallet finger.”
That could mean Hill and Kamara combine to run the ball all game and steal the strategy seen by the New England Patriots from Monday night.
Getting Kamara Back Is A Huge Win
The Saints got off to a great start this year thanks to the play of Kamara and Jameis Winston.
Being without both is a huge reason why the team is in such a rut.
Trevor Siemian and Ingram are not proper replacements for the regular duo.
#Saints RB Alvin Kamara (knee) and QB Taysom Hill (finger) were both full participants in practice today — on track for Sunday.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 8, 2021
Kamara has played in eight games and leads the team in rushing by a wide margin with only 530 yards on the year.
Ingram is next at 233.
There is really no rushing threat outside of Kamara, unless we now factor in Hill who is getting more reps as the starter under center.
A win over the Jets would get the Saints to 6-7.
As of right now, that would have them one loss back of the final playoff spot in the NFC.
The Saints are on a losing streak, but getting back their star runner totally changes the offense.
The positive of getting Kamara back is much greater than the negative of potentially losing Ingram for the week.
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