Titans won’t be involved with Kamara.
Alvin Kamara is one of the most interesting players in the NFL, but I don’t expect the Tennessee Titans to be interested in a trade for him.
Just for fun, I wanted to talk for a second about why the thought might briefly cross Titans GM Jon Robinson’s mind.
Going back to 2017, it is easy to see why Kamara became a household name despite being a career backup in college. At the University of Tennessee, he was asked to be a receiver out of the backfield more often than not, but he wasn’t used as often as he should have been as a true running back.
Well, when the New Orleans Saints drafted him in 2017 they knew that he would be the perfect complement to “starting” running back Mark Ingram. Despite Ingram’s recent success with the Baltimore Ravens, 2017 is still the best season of his career. Why?
It helps when you have two running backs that can attack defenses in different ways, but (crucially) aren’t one-dimensional players.
What I mean by that is, when defenses saw the Saints send Mark Ingram on the field they assumed that a run was coming. If Sean Payton and Drew Brees saw that, they would take advantage and find a way to scheme Ingram against a slow linebacker which is evidenced by his career-high 58 receptions in 2017.
This matters because this mismatch allowed Mark Ingram to have a career year as a runner and receiver because of the Saints’ versatility, but it also led to Kamara’s more productive year as a receiver and his most efficient rushing yards per attempt to date (6.1).
Why does that matter to the Titans?
In Tennessee, Kamara and Derrick Henry could be a bigger, better version of that 2017 tandem.
Another question this would answer for the Titans in a roundabout way is depth at receiver.
Right now the Titans have four players on the roster who really deserve to have more than 50 targets over the course of the season: A.J. Brown, Corey Davis, Adam Humphries, and Jonnu Smith.
The rest are wildcards that you can make an argument for, but none who have really done anything to sell you on the idea of them being a featured part of the passing game.
In Kalif Raymond and A.J. Brown, the Titans have shown that they aren’t afraid to attack downfield, but what they lack is another target who can do damage in the middle of the field or who can consistently do it out of the backfield.
Kamara would be that for the Titans and you could do that without compromising Derrick Henry’s volume as a threat out of the backfield (remember what happened with Mark Ingram). On top of that, Kamara has also averaged about 100 snaps per year lined up at wide receiver.
I’m not suggesting a permanent switch, but we have seen Titans OC Arthur Smith do a lot of things to keep defenses off balance like putting Jonnu Smith in the backfield, using Marcus Mariota as a wildcat QB, moving Mariota to WR and letting Derrick Henry throw touchdowns, etc.
It isn’t hard to come up with 5 plays per game where Alvin Kamara at wide receiver could give you some interesting matchups.
Why it won’t happen.
The reason why it won’t happen is very simple. After fans begged the front office to get a deal done with Derrick Henry to make him the Titans running back for as long as possible, the front office tried to make sure that there wasn’t a massive fall off behind him in the event that he really is just like every other running back.
So this offseason the Titans spent a top-100 pick on Darryton Evans and gave Derrick Henry a big (but fair) new deal to stay with the team.
To acquire Alvin Kamara, the Titans would probably have to give up a 2nd round pick and then turn around and give him a big deal that the New Orleans Saints are currently unwilling/unable to pay.
This would be a dream move for fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide because these two were both part of the 2013 recruiting class. Alabama fans have frequently turned on the NFL to watch the Titans, but even more so now that Derrick Henry is the star that he is.
Reuniting these two running backs would be a marketing dream for the Titans and even the Tennessee Volunteers who would get to show off one of their best pro players to one of their most important cities to recruit.
Unfortunately for Titans fans, the money and the picks spent this offseason should make everyone extremely hesitant to believe that the team would be interested in making a move for Kamara at this time.