The New Orleans Saints have Khiry Robinson questionable and Pierre Thomas out for Thursday night and that makes Mark Ingram and Travaris Cadet the best RB start options for Drew Brees when the team takes on the Carolina Panthers, while Jimmy Graham is also banged up and could be limited in the matchup of NFC South division teams.
Ingram is the best fantasy football option for the Saints this week, as he will be the RB1 starter with Thomas out and Robinson ailing. Cadet is a good pickup in deeper leagues and for owners in PPR formats. Coming into the game the Saints have Graham and Robinson on the injury report and both are listed as questionable coming into the week, but Graham is expected to play. Graham did not do much against the Packers and he once again could be used as a decoy if he is not quite at 100 percent.
Ingram comes in after having the best game of his career last week on Sunday night football and he now has 331 yards on the season to go along with four touchdowns. Ingram had 24 carries in that game for 172 yards on the ground and he scored a touchdown. Ingram had three touchdowns over the first two weeks of the season and then missed time with an injury, but he appears to be getting back into that early season form with two more games under his belt.
Robinson had been very solid this season, but he is questionable for the game and for owners of the RB, expect Ingram to carry the los whether Robinson plays or not. This season he has 330 yards and two touchdowns and he has not been a factor in the passing game and he has not practiced all week. Rotoworld reports that Robinson is likely not playing in the game on Thursday and that makes Cadet the backup and a worth RB2 or RB3 starter option for fantasy football owners. Robinson has not had double digit carries since Week 5 and he only has two games with double digit touches this season.
Cadet had four catches last week for 40 yards in the win over the Packers and over the last three weeks he has made an impact in the passing game. Cadet is not much of a threat in the running game, but Drew Brees likely will be looking to him quite a bit against the Panthers. Over the last four weeks Cadet has 19 catches out of the 20 he has this season and he could give owners a nice boost in Week 9.
Last season Ingram had a breakout game against the Cowboys and now he has had a breakout game against the Packers and the Saints hope he can keep this up. It was the first 100-yard game for Ingram this season and he looked crisp while averaging over seven yards per carry. This season he is averaging a healthy 5.7 yards per carry and he will be the main starter moving forward even when Thomas comes back if he keeps rushing like this. Cadet and Ingram are the best starters for this game.