The New Orleans Saints always deal with injuries pretty early into the process, and this offseason seems to be no different with injuries to Chase Young and Juwan Johnson during the offseason process or earlier. This trend seems to have continued as well, with second-year running back Kendre Miller suffering a hamstring injury during Wednesday’s training camp practice. According to Katherine Terrell of ESPN, he went into the training tent and did not return once that occurred.
Miller dealt with leg issues all of last season as a rookie. He missed time with a patella sprain, grade one hamstring sprain, and pedal ankle sprain at different points throughout the season. This led to him only playing in eight games during his rookie year, with only 41 rush attempts and 11 times targeted. He was still recovering from a knee injury when the Saints drafted him out of TCU.
Dennis Allen’s take on Miller’s hamstring injury was pointed after practice: “Look, that’s a player that’s going to have to figure out how to stay healthy. Because it’s hard to make the team when you’re in the training room all the time.”
It has been a tough road for Miller to this point in his career, no doubt, and hopefully things turn around and this is not a lingering injury for the short term future. As of right now, the Saints depth chart at running back seems relatively short with this news:
- Alvin Kamara
- Kendre Miller (hamstring injury)
- Jamaal Williams
- Jordan Mims
- James Robinson
- Jacob Kibodi
There are a few options available in free agency as training camp bodies as well if that ends up being a need. Lynn Bowden Jr. and Eno Benjamin are both available and were on the roster last summer, as is Kareem Hunt who was a reported target for the Saints last year. We will see how this plays out, hopefully it is just a minor injury and Miller gets back out there quickly without issue. He can’t afford to miss much time.
