Alvin Kamara Injury Update: Should Fantasy Football Managers Be Concerned Moving Forward?

What’s the latest on New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara’s injury status? Should you select him in your fantasy football draft? Here’s everything you need to know.

Alvin Kamara Injury Update

Back tightness cost Alvin Kamara a week, but he has returned to practice and should be fine for the season opener.

“Fine” is good, but it doesn’t mean “productive.”

The 29-year-old is playing behind an offensive line that is set to struggle again, something that very much creates a concerning floor.

Yards per carry (carries per rushing TD)

• 2017: 6.1 YPC (TD every 15 carries)
• 2018: 4.6 YPC (TD every 13.9 carries)
• 2019: 4.7 YPC (TD every 34.2 carries)
• 2020: 5.0 YPC (TD every 11.7 carries)
• 2021: 3.7 YPC (TD every 60 carries)
• 2022: 4.0 YPC (TD every 111.5 carries)
• 2023: 3.9 YPC (TD every 36 carries)

Kamara will continue to catch passes at a borderline elite level as long as Derek Carr is under center, but his name inspires confidence within the fantasy community that his production suggests unwise.

We’ve seen Kamara miss multiple games in each of the five past seasons, so while we seem to be out of the woods at the moment, don’t take that to mean that he is a good bet to play all 17 games.

The ceiling isn’t what it once was. That sort of game-breaking potential resides in a younger back like Kenneth Walker III, a talented kid with his best football ahead of him. Walker is also being drafted behind Kamara.

Alvin Kamara’s Fantasy Outlook

I want to buy the dip with Kamara as much as anyone, but his current ADP as a top-20 running back is a tough sell. He holds more value in PPR formats where Derek Carr’s propensity to check down can pay dividends, even if the per-touch production is minimal, but we’re walking a fine line.

In the later stages of the fifth round, I’m much more apt to take the WR1 in an offense that I want to buy stock in — receivers like Terry McLaurin or Jayden Reed.

I don’t find myself landing a Tier 1 quarterback in most situations, so this is also the Anthony Richardson zone as I look to layer upside on a roster that likely has stability built in through the first few rounds.

I’m not writing an obituary on Kamara as a fantasy option; I’m just not overly interested in this range at the RB position. His profile carries a good amount of risk that I think many drafters are willing to overlook because of the nostalgia that comes with his name.

Aaron Jones is being drafted in this neighborhood, and other non-perfect backs like Rhamondre Stevenson and Najee Harris go slightly later.

In a perfect world, you’ve built your roster in such a way that you don’t need to be thinking about this range of running backs. Grab one or two early and then wait until the second half of the draft. If the receiver position provides value early and often, Kamara will have to be on your radar if he falls, but you need to be aware of the risk you’re taking in drafting this one-time fantasy star.