This is just unfortunate. NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reports that New Orleans Saints running back Mark Ingram II is out 4 to 6 weeks with a “slight tear of his MCL” in his knee after Monday night’s loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, though the injury won’t require surgery. With just five weeks left in the regular season, odds are Ingram’s year is over. He’s been limited with a knee injury in practice earlier this year, and he recently missed three games due to an MCL strain. It’s unclear whether this is the same knee, but what is certain is that he’ll be out of action for a while.
If that’s the case, he may have already played his last down with the Saints. Ingram’s contract is up after the season and he’ll be a free agent in 2023. There’s no guarantee that the Saints will re-sign him, and there should be enough options out there at running back that other teams will choose to get younger at the position. It would be a tragic, disappointing way for Ingram’s career to close out, but that’s likely where we’re headed.
Still, Ingram has a ton of accomplishments to look back on. He is the Saints’ all-time leader in rushing attempts (1,451), rushing yards (6,500) and touchdown runs (52), while also tacking on 264 receptions for 1,804 receiving yards and 5 touchdown catches with New Orleans. That’s doubly impressive given how much work Ingram put into his skills as a receiver coming out of college.
He also only has 17 fumbles in his Saints career, which ties Mike Strachan for 18th in franchise history. Ingram caught an undeserved reputation as someone who practiced lax ball security early in his career, but the fact is few players have carried the rock as often as Ingram and fumbled less often in Saints history. Of the franchise’s 10 players to log more than 700 rushing attempts, Ingram has the third-lowest rate of carries per fumble at 85.4 (only Alvin Kamara, at 95.9, and Pierre Thomas, at 136.3, are better).
Few running backs — and few players at all, to be blunt about it — have been as dependable and durable for the Saints as Ingram. He’ll turn 33 in a few weeks on Dec. 21 and may have to consider retirement in the months ahead. We’ll see what’s next for him and New Orleans, and while things aren’t ending how anyone would have liked, there’s no other way to look back on his Saints career but as a success.
