How does Alvin Kamara’s suspension affect his fantasy draft value? | Yahoo Fantasy Football Show

Yahoo Sports' Matt Harmon and Dalton Del Don hop on the Yahoo Fantasy Football Show to discuss Alvin Kamara’s upcoming three-game suspension, and debate how that should affect his fantasy impact this season.

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Video Transcript

MATT HARMON: Alvin Kamara is going to be suspended for three games for his role in a fight outside a Las Vegas nightclub in 2022. Dalton, we thought it might be up to six games. It's only a three games suspension. Does this change your calculation at all with Kamara or the other running backs in the New Orleans Saints backfield?

DALTON DEL DON: I didn't move him at all. I had him as my running back 29. It looks like his expert consensus ranks as the RB 27 in half point PPR.

So I'm just a tad below him. But yeah, I didn't move him. I expected a suspension right around here.

So it didn't affect my rankings too much. Good job with the Kamara call, by the way. I had to look up a video, and he says it's Kamara, not Kamahra.

MATT HARMON: Although he said in a tweet because he's back on Twitter now, he basically said, I say Kamara, my mom says Kamahra. So, kind of say whatever you want.

DALTON DEL DON: All right, OK.

MATT HARMON: But anyways, I have Alvin Kamara at running back 28. Again, I didn't move him either because I feel like number one three, game, six game-- yeah, six games, obviously a harder suspension to weather. But three games is still not nothing, especially when this year, I have put a premium on kind of getting off to that fast start.

I really want my teams, you know, to be better in September than they usually are. Kamara is not going to help you there at all. And Dalton, I think the part that goes under discussed about all this is he was legendarily efficient earlier in his career. He hasn't really been that player the last two years.

We know last year, they started replacing him on passing downs for, like, David Johnson and working in Mark Ingram. And now they've got Jamaal Williams. They've got Kendre Miller. Like, what is Alvin Kamara role going to be, and how good is he even going to be in that role? Like, those questions are there beyond just, OK, we know now he's only going to miss three games.

DALTON DEL DON: Yep, you nailed More depth in New Orleans. Will the targets be there? I mean, they've dried up the last year compared to his peak. And 28 years old, so he's probably running back I'm not going to be targeting in fantasy drafts, especially needing to wait a month before we even see him take the field.

MATT HARMON: Like, yo, they have Chris Olave. Like, Chris Olave is one of the best young receivers in the NFL. Like, you're going to funnel targets to that guy.

If Michael Thomas is out there, you're going to funnel targets to that guy. Rasheed Shaheed is a pretty good player. The tight end room is, like, very deep at this point.

I have no idea what to do with the tight end room in fantasy. So, this is just not that offense, like, structurally that's going to funnel the ball to him. And I kind of think that's a good thing. I think we need to apply that logic to more running back situations around the league generally.

DALTON DEL DON: Kendre Miller could be a thing too. One counter is the Saints and Falcons just glaringly stand out as the easiest schedules this season just kind of historically. So, you know, you have to show some patience. Kamara, the second half of the season, if he is targeted like in years past, he could be a huge fantasy win. But just that stage of his career, it's more likely that he could continue to see fewer and fewer touches and opportunities per game even after he does return.