Payton pleased with Kamara, Saints defense

With the final regular season game set for Sunday afternoon in Charlotte against the Panthers, Saints head coach Sean Payton took time Thursday to praise the play of his star running back and the overall play of his defense.

Alvin Kamara is having the best year of his outstanding 4-year career in New Orleans. Kamara has accounted for 1,688 yards from scrimmage and 21 touchdowns, including an NFL best 16 rushing touchdowns. He has also returned two kicks for 44 yards, giving him 1,732 total yards this season.

The Saints traded up to the third round to get Kamara in the 2017 NFL Draft, giving up a 2018 second round pick and a seventh round pick in 2017 to get him with the 67th overall pick.

Did Sean Payton know what he was getting when he drafted Kamara?

“If I knew the kind of back we’re seeing right now was who he was going to be, we probably would have drafted him even earlier,” Payton said. “You have traits. You have things you like. This guy seems real bright. He’s elusive.”

Of course, there were questions as well.

“How come he transferred from Alabama to a junior college? Asked Payton. “How come he was a part-time starter at Tennessee? There’s a number of reasons to it but I think after the evaluation process, I know how I felt. I was there for the workout. I was there for the mental part of it. I was there to see him catch punts. I was there and I loved the way he was playing.”

Then, there is the rare quality that Kamara has which separates him from many others.

“The unique thing about him is I would say he’s very unselfish,” Payton said. “He’s happy when his teammate scores, when he scores.”

Needing only 68 yards to reach 1,000 yards rushing on the year, Payton would love to see Kamara get to the milestone but qualified how Kamara might feel about doing so.

“Obviously, he had a huge game (against Minnesota) but he’s unique that way and it’s rare in this day and age and its something that is appreciated and I think that sure, if you’re a runner and you have a chance to get a 1,000 yards, yeah, I think it does for most and yet, if you asked him that question, to get the win, he’d trade in winning for any of it.”

Payton credited defensive coordinator Dennis Allen from his team’s progression from giving up big plays and committing many penalties early in the year to becoming a high echelon defense in the league since then.

“I don’t know that at the beginning of the year, you’re thinking more in terms of winning and look, I think we turned the corner midseason that stretch when we played teams in Chicago, we had Carolina at home, Tampa Bay, San Francisco at home.

“We hit a stretch there where we were playing our best defense and then I thought we played really well against the Chiefs defensively. I thought we played okay last week and Philadelphia, of course, was not where we wanted to be.”

How have the Panthers changed from the first time the Saints saw them on Oct. 25. New Orleans won 27-24, winning on a fourth quarter field goal by Wil Lutz.

“They’ve got a handful of rookies that are playing in starting roles,” Payton said. “Just that alone, that experience, they’ve had a few different faces at the corner position, but I think they’re playing overall much better as a unit. They’re getting the takeaways.”

Payton said it was expected that the Panther defense would improve as the season progressed.

“When you have a change as drastic as you have with a new head coach and a new defensive coordinator and no offseason, I think you’re seeing a unit on that side of the ball now that is benefitting from game reps, corrections, all of those things.” Payton said. “They present a lot of different looks and challenges.”

Payton has lots of respect for what the Carolina offense is doing under former Saints and LSU assistant Joe Brady.

“Teddy sees the field well, he’s not taking sacks, the ball’s coming out” Payton said. “They spread the field and they force you to tackle well in space.”