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Is Alvin Kamara the best Running Back in the NFL?

SBLIII

By SBLIII
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Tugboat

Tugboat

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On 04/12/2018 at 11:46 PM, Destructo Spin said:

Arguing against Kamara on the basis of his rushing yards alone is ignoring that he plays a huge percentage of his snaps as a WR. And I don't mean, lining up in the backfield and catching a pass. I mean, actually split out on the line of scrimmage and playing wide receiver.

There are only 5 RBs in the league right now that have more yards from scrimmage than Kamara: Gurley (279 touches), Elliott (293), Barkley (269), McCaffrey (243), and Conner (253). Kamara only has 226 touches.

Yards per touch:

McCaffrey 6.27

Gurley 5.91

Barkley 5.78

Kamara 5.74

Elliot 5.36

Conner 5.40

Now granted, that's not the insane 8 yards per touch figure Kamara carried through most of last season, but it's right up there with the top dogs this year and nobody except McCaffrey has a "significant" edge. (granted that "significant" difference only amounts to 7 inches difference per touch)

 

 

This is where i have a real problem with most of the arguments that Kamara is "the best RB".  When you have to start delving into the, yeah but...and the well he's also a WR.  I mean, nobody is denying Kamara's versatility as a RB/WR hybrid and the value of that as an offensive weapon overall.  Especially with a mind like Payton coaxing the most out of that skillset.  But being a decent WR doesn't really have a lot of bearing on a guy's ability as a pure RB to me.  It's as a pure RB that i think Kamara's resume is still missing some credibility as a stacked front, tough yards, bulk carries runner, to stake any real claim as the best RB.  Still an important component of being "the best RB in the NFL" imo.

He's essentially running as the favorable (to his skillset) component of a tandem backfield.  Whereas guys like Gurley, Elliot, et al on this list are the sole real focal point in their backfield.  They do it all as a runner, much more regularly.  They may not have quite the ability of Kamara as a WR, but as an actual RB they also don't necessarily have an Ingram to soak up a lot of the heavy-lifting/dirty work that tends to drag YPC or YPTouch down.  Their "versatility" just skews more toward the heavy duty RB end of the spectrum, rather than into a totally different WR position spectrum.

To me, it's like a less extreme version of the whole Jordan Howard/Tarik Cohen situation.  Cohen may have the flashier YPC/YPT stats by a healthy margin, but i'd still call Howard the better actual RB, and if i have to pick one or the other to be my #1RB, it's really not a question.  Obviously Kamara/Ingram is less dramatic a split, but there's an element of that to his situation that knocks Kamara out of the "best RB" conversation to me...regardless of what sort of value he offers at a different position as a de facto WR.  If Ingram leaves and isn't replaced and Kamara starts to really shake off that knock...i'll happily reevaluate that.  But until he actually proves it, i'm not gonna label him the best RB in the league.

 

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tyler735

tyler735

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43 minutes ago, Tugboat said:

This is where i have a real problem with most of the arguments that Kamara is "the best RB".  When you have to start delving into the, yeah but...and the well he's also a WR.  I mean, nobody is denying Kamara's versatility as a RB/WR hybrid and the value of that as an offensive weapon overall.  Especially with a mind like Payton coaxing the most out of that skillset.  But being a decent WR doesn't really have a lot of bearing on a guy's ability as a pure RB to me.  It's as a pure RB that i think Kamara's resume is still missing some credibility as a stacked front, tough yards, bulk carries runner, to stake any real claim as the best RB.  Still an important component of being "the best RB in the NFL" imo.

He's essentially running as the favorable (to his skillset) component of a tandem backfield.  Whereas guys like Gurley, Elliot, et al on this list are the sole real focal point in their backfield.  They do it all as a runner, much more regularly.  They may not have quite the ability of Kamara as a WR, but as an actual RB they also don't necessarily have an Ingram to soak up a lot of the heavy-lifting/dirty work that tends to drag YPC or YPTouch down.  Their "versatility" just skews more toward the heavy duty RB end of the spectrum, rather than into a totally different WR position spectrum.

To me, it's like a less extreme version of the whole Jordan Howard/Tarik Cohen situation.  Cohen may have the flashier YPC/YPT stats by a healthy margin, but i'd still call Howard the better actual RB, and if i have to pick one or the other to be my #1RB, it's really not a question.  Obviously Kamara/Ingram is less dramatic a split, but there's an element of that to his situation that knocks Kamara out of the "best RB" conversation to me...regardless of what sort of value he offers at a different position as a de facto WR.  If Ingram leaves and isn't replaced and Kamara starts to really shake off that knock...i'll happily reevaluate that.  But until he actually proves it, i'm not gonna label him the best RB in the league.

 

I feel like much of this was true in Kamara's rookie season. However, in Kamara's second year, I don't think the bold paragraph above applies anymore. Kamara has taken more of our short yardage/goal-line carries as he is better than Ingram in those situations. He may not be as powerful as Ingram, but his burst/quickness/vision has shown to be more effective in those situations. Now if you don't view him as the best RB that's all fine and well, but I don't think Kamara's stats are skewed this season due to not taking short yardage/goal-line carries like they may have been last year (Kamara has 3 Two Point conversions, and several TD's near the goal line this year).  

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ET80

ET80

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1 hour ago, minutemancl said:

I feel like such a homer agreeing with this, but even if I'm wrong, I can't be far off, right?

You're not, because he is. He's LaDanian Tomlinson in his prime, and "Prime" Tomlinson has a good case for most talented RB to ever play.

I know I'm getting very over-the-top on this, but Saquan is worthy of such praise. Guy is already perched on top of rankings... and there's a noticable  gap between him and #2.

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