To this point the New Orleans Saints have had a clear plan on offense: Feed the ball to Alvin Kamara, but the star RB has picked up injuries in the process.
Who might take on some of that workload, particularly with Taysom Hill again on the mend with rib injuries? Jamaal Williams has only logged three carries total the past two weeks, and the spotlight will now turn to running back Kendre Miller, who has spent the first four weeks on injured reserve. He's eligible to return this week, but Dennis Allen wouldn't say for sure that he'll return to practice ahead of Week 5.
“He’s made significant progress," Allen said this week on WWL Radio. "I think that’s something that we’re considering. We haven’t made a final decision on that."
Listen to the full, exclusive interview with Saints head coach Dennis Allen in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Miller, whom the Saints selected in the third round of the 2023 draft, has been effective when given opportunities, but to this point he's been unable to stay on the field. The former TCU standout suffered a hamstring injury on the first day of training camp this past offseason and has not played since, though he has been in attendance at a majority of the team's practices throughout the season.
If Miller did make his return to practice this week it wouldn't necessarily mean he's active for a Week 5 matchup with the Chiefs, but it would start the clock on the 21-day window to add him to the active roster. If he was unable to return prior to that deadline, he'd be done for the season.
"I think that three-week window for him is going to be an important timeframe,” Allen said.
MORE FROM DENNIS ALLEN
On needing to learn how to finish games
“That’s what we’ve got to learn how to do. We’ve got to learn how to finish better and right now we’re not doing that, and that’s what the good teams are really able to do. The good teams are able to finish when they have an opportunity to and so that’s been disappointing and hopefully our guys are continuing to learn from that and we’ll get better at that as the season goes on, but that’s the way the National Football League is, the majority of these games come down to 1-score games and so you know, it’s been disappointing that the last two weeks we’ve had an opportunity to close it out on defense and we haven’t been able to get the job done.”
On teams targeting Paulson Adebo
“I thought Philly started to do that a little bit in the previous week. I thought Atlanta was trying to do that this week. Paulson is a guy that’s made a lot of plays for us. He’s played good defense for us. He’s got to improve on some things from a fundamental and technique standpoint, and look, when they’re, you know, become some flames and the offense is starting to look to identify that, you’ve got to do some things to put out the fire and so I have confidence that Paulson will be able to do that. He’s played really good football for us, but certainly I think the last two weeks, you know, teams have tried to attack him a little bit.”
On the pass rush
“We certainly didn’t get [Kirk Cousins] on the ground as much as we needed to be able to get him on the ground, and we need to be able to rush the passer better and we will be able to rush the passer better, we have rushed the passer better. It’s been a significant improvement from where we were a year ago and yet it’s not where we want it to be, so we’re going to continue to work hard to get better at that. I do think Carl’s done a nice job of rushing the passer. I thought Payton Turner had an outstanding rush and a long arm to get the ball out from the quarterback. You know, I showed about eight plays specifically with the defense and the difference in winning and losing the game and there’s, you know, about eight plays in the game where if we’re able to make a play, you know, we’re taking points off the board and so that’s the … critical factor in playing these close games is you never know which play is going to be the difference in the game and so we’ve got to do a better job of, you know, finishing on all these plays, and then you mentioned Afernee Orji. I think he’s done a really good job on coverage units, in particular on the kickoff coverage. He’s a guy that’s improved a lot from where he was a year ago and that’s good to see and hopefully he’ll continue to improve and continue to improve as a defensive player.”
