Turn on any Alvin Kamara highlight reel and you'll instantly find one of the flashiest, most attention-grabbing players in the NFL.
Heck, the signature back-of-the-arms tape that's now ubiquitous around the NFL? You'd be hard-pressed to find a single player who did that before Alvin.
Listen to a breakdown on this topic and a preview for the Saints' Week 6 matchup with the Texans on the latest episode of Inside Black & Gold in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Kamara and Mike Thomas could be described in much the same way: They let their play to do the talking. Even in a starring role on the field as young players, the vocal leadership in the locker room fell to a well-established group of veterans like Drew Brees, Mark Ingram, Terron Armstead, even Ted Ginn Jr.
All of those players have either retired or seen their careers bring them elsewhere, and that's why the leadership shift isn't difficult to identify. Both Kamara and MT have had moments over the past two seasons where they stood up in the locker room following a difficult loss and gave an impassioned speech to rally the troops. In both cases the Saints responded the following week with a shutout.
"Both of those guys understand what it takes to win in our league," head coach Dennis Allen said. "I think they can express that to a lot of the other guys. We’ve got some young guys that haven’t experienced that in our league, and quite frankly there’s some veteran guys that haven’t really experienced that in our league.”
Both players know what it takes to win at a high level, and that experience and understanding of what it all takes is at a premium in 2023, at least on offense. Brees can't be that guy anymore. Derek Carr is a leader and has respect in the locker room, but he can't exactly point to the Saints' 49-15 stretch from 2017-'20 and call for a return to that level of focus, intensity, preparation, etc. It's got to be the guys who were there.
Related
The only real issue lately has been availability, particularly for Thomas when it comes to staying healthy, but also for Kamara as he waited through a three-game suspension to start the season.
"It’s hard to kind of be that guy when you’re not out there playing," Allen said.
Now that both are back and executing at a high level, it's a different ballgame. Thomas has had at least four catches and 50 yards in each of the Saints' first five games this year, his longest run of consecutive games played since the 2019 season when he caught an NFL record 149 passes. Kamara has been back in action the past two games with 33 carries for 131 yards and a touchdown, along with 16 catches for another 50 yards. His score gave him 73 for his career, moving him past Marques Colston and atop the franchise record books for total TDs.
Even after that shutout win over the Patriots, Kamara got on the mic in his postgame comments and jokingly called out his teammates who had mistakes or missed opportunities. It was mostly in jest, but also a clear message. Alvin's got a good memory, and sloppy, inconsistent play won't fly on this team.
"That’s just me," told me this week. "Those guys get it from me off-camera. So I’m just kinda keeping it light post-game, we had a good win so I didn’t want to go too hard. I think it’s just friendly and it’s competition and it’s guys know that they’re capable, and we hold each other accountable.”
Related
But in most cases it's easy to make yourself heard when things are going well, as they did in Week 5. When they weren't going well, as was the case in a Week 4 dud against the Bucs? That's when MT stood up in the locker room and told his teammates not to get used to that feeling, because it's not what this team is built on. It was Kamara telling reporters that tough conversations would be coming, and opening up in a conversation with NewOrleans.football that the offense had to find ways to change, run the ball and also be less predictable. Even this week Alvin noted that he's got to take it upon himself to be in offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael's ear to make sure things are headed in the right direction.
"Throughout the years I’ve kind of picked my spots where I always lead with my play, but sometimes, s**t, somebody gotta say something," Kamara told me. "If nobody gonna say nothing, then I’m gonna say it. And it’s not even that, it’s just moreso I don’t like waiting around for anything, let alone something that needs to be corrected or addressed or fixed. So I guess that’s what we call leadership, just saying, addressing things when they need to be addressed instead of just letting it roll over and kind of snowball into something bigger.”
So far, so good.