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The analysts at Pro Football Focus have taken the measure of the New Orleans Saints’ roster through the first four weeks of the 2020 season, and they’ve found it wanting. Only one Saints player earned a mention on PFF’s first-quarter All-Pro team, and they had him playing second fiddle.
Alvin Kamara hasn’t run as often or as efficiently as his Minnesota Vikings counterpart Dalvin Cook, but he’s been the better all-around player. Kamara has averaged twice as many receiving yards per game (80.3) as Cook has gained in total (40) through four weeks, while converting the same number of first downs (27). He’s also scored one more touchdown than Cook while averaging almost a yard and a half more per touch (7.0 versus Cook’s 5.7) on a similar workload (80 combined receptions and carries against Cook’s 82).
Despite all of that, Kamara is listed on the second team while Cook gets the headlines with the first team. Ho hum.
To be fair, their play styles are very different, and Cook is a much more limited asset. He can’t run the routes or make the catches Kamara makes look mundane, and he’s also saddled with a significantly worse offensive line (not to mention the quarterback situation, with Kirk Cousins lobbing as many touchdowns as interceptions). So maybe Cook has faced a higher degree of difficulty, and he’s certainly one of the game’s best running backs.
So we’ll check back in on things at midseason, and again down the stretch. But based off what we’ve seen through the first month of the season, it’s Kamara who should be an early favorite to win Offensive Player of the Year.
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