Latavius Murray Fantasy Outlook Could Improve at Alvin Kamara's Expense

Latavius Murray has been an elite fantasy football option recently, as he's been dominating while Alvin Kamara has been sidelined with an ankle injury. However, Kamara wasn't listed on the New Orleans Saints latest injury report, and it appears he's going to play in Week 10.

While that's obviously a positive for his fantasy outlook, it appears the two players could be entering into more of a timeshare in the Saints' backfield.

I would definitely expect a slight increase in Latavius Murray's workload going forward -- both because of how he has played and because Kamara got banged up with such a heavy workload. Remember Sean Payton insisted he wanted to keep Kamara's "pitch count" where it was last year. https://t.co/JrFkvC7xN0
— Mike Triplett (@MikeTriplett) November 7, 2019

There are a few factors contributing to this potential shift. First, and most importantly, is Murray's performance over the last two games. With Kamara out of the lineup, Murray racked up at least 150 yards from scrimmage and two touchdowns in each of the games in which he was the lead back.

Secondly, there's the fact that Kamara got injured at all. Kamara was averaging 20.8 opportunities (carries plus targets) through six games in 2019, compared to the 13.8 per game he averaged as a rookie in 2017. It's fair to expect New Orleans to expand Murray's workload in an effort to keep Kamara healthy.

Highest success rates among 36 full-time RBs (Football Outsiders)

1. Aaron Jones (60%)
2. Latavius Murray (59%)
3. Ezekiel Elliott (58%)
4. Carlos Hyde (56%)
5. Mark Ingram (56%)
...
34. Nick Chubb (41%)
35. Joe Mixon (41%)
36. Leonard Fournette (40%)
— Ian Hartitz (@Ihartitz) November 5, 2019

Even if Kamara begins to lose some touches to Murray, though, he's still best viewed as an RB1 going forward.

In fact, this news likely helps Murray's fantasy outlook more than it hurts Kamara's. Kamara checks in at RB3 in our Week 10 fantasy football PPR rankings, while Murray clocks in at RB27.

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Stuart Easton is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, Stuart Easton also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username stueast13. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.