As anyone who plays fantasy football can tell you, Saints running back Alvin Kamara is one of the most versatile, productive, explosive players in the NFL.
Real Patriots football players and coaches realize it too.
Even though Kamara isn’t off to his best start – though he leads the Saints in both rushing and receiving, it’s via relatively low production for him with just 88 yards on 28 rushes on the ground and seven catches for 33 yards and a score – he remains the centerpiece of the New Orleans offense.
Listening to New England players and coaches talk as they began preparations to host the Saints on Sunday at Gillette Stadium, it’s pretty clear the focal point of the defense will be.
“He does everything well,” Bill Belichick said Wednesday during his press conference at Gillette Stadium, not the least bit exaggerating. “Very good in the passing game. His production has been phenomenal. 59 touchdowns (since 2017) or whatever it is. His yards from scrimmage have been at the very top since he’s been in the league. He’s got good speed, quickness. Tough to tackle. Good vision. Versatile guy. They get him the ball a lot of different ways. And they do. And he produces with it. So, yeah, that’s a guy you have to keep your eye on at all times. He plays on all three downs. He’s always in there.”
Kamara has been selected to the Pro Bowl in each of his previous four NFL seasons, topping 1,500 or more scrimmage yards with 13 or more touchdowns in three of those years. He’s perfect fit for the varied, diverse offense that Saints head coach Sean Payton deploys each week.
“Kamara and CMC (Panthers star Christian McCaffrey), guys like that, they are elusive. (As an offense) you want to get them in the open field,” Patriots linebacker Dont’a Hightower said. “You want to put (defensive) guys in situations where they don’t feel comfortable. Sean Payton is a really good offensive coordinator and a really good head coach, a strong football mind.
So he does the best of putting guys in those situations. Just so happens that Kamara is really good at whatever you want him to do. Whether you throw him the ball or hand it off to him, or a jet sweep or a screen or whatever.”
“His vision is crazy,” echoed safety Adrian Phillips. “His elusiveness is even more crazy. So it’s like he’s going to make you miss in a phone booth. So when you know it’s run you have to close the space right now because if you don’t he’s going to take that thing or like 60 or 70 yards. Once we get our keys and once we know that it’s run it’s important for us to get off a block and pretty much have all 11 people tackle him, because if you don’t it’s going to be a long day for you.”
Only Dallas’ Ezekiel Elliott has more yards from scrimmage than Kamara since 2017, so the Patriots won’t let his slow start lure them into thinking the Saints playmaker is any less dangerous than he’s proven in the past.
“Explosive. Really good. One of the top in the league,” Lawrence Guy declared. “There is not much you can doubt about him as a player, you know. So that’s one of those things we just have to play down by down, understanding that he’s going to get some big plays and we have to eliminate how many big plays he does get.
“He does everything. He can receive. He can run. He motions. All that you can think of he can do, it’s what we see on film. How are they using their offense. They are using it the way you expect them to use it. They are using a good player to the best of his ability. You don’t see them limiting his ability. They just let him play a good game of ball. We just have to do what we have to do up front. It starts up front. We all know that. If we do our jobs up front, do our jobs in the back end, we should be set.”
Of course many a defense has had that mentality heading into battles with Kamara and the Saints in recent years and many a defense learned that it’s much easier said than done. If anything, Kamara is due for a big day heading into a matchup with a Patriots run defense that’s been underwhelming at times to open the season.