A week after his record performance on Christmas Day, Alvin Kamara faces the prospect of missing the opening of the Saints playoff.
The star running back tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, according to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.football (on twitter) Kamara did another test and tested positive, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (on twitter) Kamara did not practice Friday.
Kamara is not symptomatic, according to Underhill (on twitter) Saints went to the playoffs in each of the first three seasons of Kamara; he hasn’t lost any of those games. The former third-round pick has only lost three regular season games in his career.
If Kamara remains asymptomatic, he will be released to play the first game of the New Orleans playoff – if that game takes place on Sunday, January 10, ESPN.com’s Jeremy Fowler tweets. The NFL has a new playoff schedule this year; three wild card games will take place on Saturday and Sunday. If the league classifies Santos as a Sunday team – if, in fact, they don’t get seed number 1 – Kamara has a chance to play.
Santos has a chance of advantage in the field in the NFC, which becomes more important now. The Saints won a road playoff game in the franchise’s history, but securing goodbye now would limit Kamara’s chances of losing a postseason game. A triple tie at the top of the Saints, Packers and Seahawks conference would give New Orleans its second No. 1 seed in three seasons. That would mean a defeat for Green Bay and a victory for Seattle on Sunday, in addition to New Orleans defeating Carolina. However, the Packers are favorites to beat the Bears this week and take first place.
Kamara ran for six touchdowns in Week 16, drawing Ernie Nevers‘Record of 91 years and leads the NFL with 21 TDs in total. He struggled with an ankle problem in 2019, but lost only two games. He played all 15 Saints competitions this year and set a new career record with 1,688 yards of scrimmage. The Saints winning seed number 2 – what they would do if the current spots held – would mean a match with the Ram, Cardinals or Bears in the first round Latavius Murray (656 running yards; five TDs in total) would start in that game.
The Saints, however, have sailed this season without major players at various times. Michael Thomas remains on IR and missed much of the season due to illness and suspension. Drew Brees he lost four games to broken ribs and a punctured lung, but came back. This situation Kamara will be more equal for New Orleans, who suffered a turnaround in the first round with Kamara, Brees and a healthy Thomas last season.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.