The Saints’ rebuild is in full swing in the Big Easy, and last week veteran running back Alvin Kamara (knee) missed his first game of the season, opening playing time for rookie Devin Neal to step up. Can Neal be a fantasy football option in week 14 and for the fest of your fantasy season if Kamara remains sidelined?
Let’s take a look at Neal’s workload in Week 13 and see what to expect going forward from the Saints’ offense in the closing weeks of the regular season.
Alvin Kamara injury update
There isn’t much to update on Kamara yet this week. Last week, he was diagnosed with an MCL sprain and didn’t practice. He wasn’t ruled out until late in the week last week, and the team doesn’t seem to expect him to miss extended time since they are not planning on placing him on IR.
Watch for injury reports from this week, but until he’s back to full practices, it seems safe to plan on Neal getting most of the work.
Devin Neal’s workload
Without Kamara in Week 13, Neal played 82% of snaps for the Saints and had a total of 69 yards on 17 touches. He took 14 carries for 47 rushing yards and hauled in all three of his targets for 22 receiving yards.
While he didn’t get into the end zone, he still had a solid 9.9 fantasy points after posting a season-high 11.1 fantasy points in Week 12 against the Falcons.
Perhaps even more importantly for his outlook moving forward, backup running back Audric Estime had zero offensive snaps while Evan Hull played 18% of snaps but only had 15 rushing yards on five carries.
The Bottom Line
While Neal isn’t in an elite offense with lots of touchdown potential, his workload is enough to keep him as a viable flex play in Week 14 with RB2 upside against the Buccaneers. The Bucs have a solid run defense, as usual, but they haven’t been elite this year, allowing 12 running back touchdowns in 12 games along with 77.4 rushing yards and 56.8 receiving yards per game to the position.
Looking at the rest of the schedule, if you need running back help and Neal is available, he’s a great pickup in season-long leagues.
In one-week DFS fantasy football contests, like the NFL $2.5M Fantasy Football Millionaire [$1M to 1st], Devin Neal will be a very good value play at $5,100 if he’s lined up to serve as the top running back this week. He doesn’t have an elite ceiling since the offense has struggled to score points, but he has a high floor and good value potential in the next few weeks.
