Saints sign running back Lamar Miller to practice squad

With Tony Jones, Jr. on injured reserve, the New Orleans Saints were without a primary backup to Pro Bowl running back Alvin Kamara. Enter fellow former-Pro Bowler, Lamar Miller.

Lamar Miller played his last full season in the NFL in 2018, totaling over 1,000 scrimmage yards (including 973 rushing yards) with the Houston Texans. Miller tore his ACL during the 2019 preseason and missed the entire 2019 year. He appeared in one game with the Chicago Bears last year, catching two passes for a total of six yards.

As I explained on The Jordy Hultberg Show last week, not all offensive touches are created equal for a running back. Kamara is currently averaging over 21 offensive touches per game through the season’s first five games, with many of those touches coming in the form of bruising runs into a stacked defensive box.

Those more brutal runs were likely touches originally intended for a player like Tony Jones, Jr. The addition of Lamar Miller helps give the Saints another power running option to help keep Kamara healthy for the entirety of the NFL’s 17-game regular season marathon.

Miller is only getting signed to the practice squad at this time, leaving recently-signed Devine Ozigbo as the Saints’ only other true running back on the roster behind Kamara (Dwayne Washington is primarily a special teamer). It is unclear at this time if the Saints intend to elevate Miller to the active roster as early as the Seahawks game, but it likely wouldn’t hurt to have Miller available even if only in the form of veteran insurance behind Ozigbo and Alvin Kamara.

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