How the Saints will fill the void during Mark Ingram’s suspension

The news certainly came as a shock.

While the New Orleans Saints and Mark Ingram certainly knew what was coming, the reality of the absence of Mark Ingram for the first quarter of the 2018 season due to suspension will set in when September rolls around.

How do you replace a Pro Bowler in his prime, a player who was a centerpiece of a revamped offense favoring the running game?

Now 28, Ingram is entering his eighth season in the league and is coming off of his best season in the NFL.

Ingram had career highs in carries (230), yards (1.124) and touchdowns (12) rushing. He also had career highs in catches (51) and reception yardage (416), having made himself a good receiver. His 4.9 yards per carry was tied for the second best in his career. He is the best pass protector for Drew Brees among the team’s running backs.

Unfortunately, it is the second straight year that the Saints will be without a key player to start the season.

Last year, it was Willie Snead who missed the first three games and he never recovered, disappearing from the offense and at season’s end, from the franchise.

While there are a murmurs about Ingram wanting a new contract, it would not have distracted from him performing well. Ingram is a hard worker, a solid professional.

The murmurs about him possibly being traded do not make sense.

If the Saints intended to trade him, it seems there were many good options in the recent NFL draft that the team could have pursued. Additionally, Ingram has always been a favorite of Sean Payton, who made a huge investment in him with the 28th pick in the first round in 2011. Payton stuck with him through injuries and a nominal performance in his first three years. He became the kind of back Payton envisioned in 2014 and has not looked back, playing quite well since then.

When considering how to replace Ingram’s impact, there is certainly one very obvious conclusion.

The absence of Ingram will most certainly impact Alvin Kamara the most.

Kamara will unquestionably more playing time and perhaps more touches.

In the 2017 regular season, Kamara had 201 touches from scrimmage and returned 11 kicks. He added 26 more touches in the playoffs and was named the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year. He averaged 13.25 touches per game. That is likely to become more along the lines of 18 to 20, at least early in the season. It is imperative that the Saints keep him around that number to avoid wearing him down or risking injury. Already very valuable, Kamara is now invaluable in the absence of Ingram.

Trey Edmunds is an interesting study.

He has the size (6-2, 223) to accumulate many carries and take hits. He has pretty good speed as well. He certainly has the pedigree. Edmunds looked solid in his lone appearance last season as a running back at Buffalo, rushing nine times for 48 yards and a touchdown.

Edmunds’ father, Ferrell, was an excellent NFL tight end for seven seasons with Miami and Seattle. He earned All-Pro honors in 1989 and was a Pro Bowl selection in 1989 and 1990.

Edmunds has a pair of brothers in the NFL as well.

His brother Terrell, a safety, was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round last month while brother Tremaine, a linebacker, was the 16th overall pick of the Buffalo Bills.

Daniel Lasco is entering his third year.

Lasco has the most speed of any of the running backs but has only 13 touches in two seasons, all in 2016 with 11 rushes for 32 yards and two catches 11 yards.

Lasco is a valuable gunner on special teams, utilizing his speed, his biggest asset. Can he be a player who can take carries?

He has decent size (6-1, 205) to go with his speed. 2018 is the year we will find out about Lasco, as to whether the Saints have something or not.

Boston Scott is diminutive (5-6) but has big legs and lower body strength. He is very quick with good change of direction speed. He is a good receiver out of the backfield and could take some carries and give the Saints a change-of-pace player.

Scott is another player who could figure on special teams in the return game.

Jonathan Williams has good size (6-0, 223) and a year of NFL experience. He played in 11 games for Buffalo in 2016, rushing 27 times for 94 yards and a touchdown.

No one approaches the skill level of Ingram on the current roster. While Kamara is electric, Ingram was the tough guy who did the dirty work inside the tackles. It will take a combined, cumulative effort to get the job done from the players on hand, unless the team makes a move between now and the start of the 2018 season.