The New Orleans Saints will be without Mark Ingram after he suffered an injury in Week 2 and now fantasy football owners should look for Pierre Thomas to start in Week 3 against the Vikings and that also makes Khiry Robinson a strong sleeper pickup at the RB position, as he should get more carries if Ingram has to miss some significant time.
According to Pro Football Talk, Ingram will be out for at least a few weeks with a hand injury and this comes as Ingram has been the leading rusher for the Saints. The report says that Ingram suffered the hand injury in the game against the Browns on Sunday and now he could be out for a month. The team has their bye week within that span, but the loss of Ingram is a tough one to deal with, as he has been playing well this season through two games.
The Saints are deep at running back so that's not an issue and fantasy owners would be wise to see if Khiry Robinson, Pierre Thomas and Travaris Cadet are available in their leagues. Cadet is not an option unless it's a deep league, while Robinson could surprise with more touches in the coming weeks as well. Thomas and Ingram are basically the starters together, so he should have a boost and he comes in as the main option in the passing game. For PPR owners, Thomas is the best option, as he should be the feature back next week and until Ingram comes back.
The Saints have their bye in the middle of October and leading up to that they have games against the Vikings, Cowboys and Buccaneers. Every week in the NFL is tough, but those games are not crazy hard and the team could get by without Ingram. Ingram has been off to a very solid start this season after playing well at the tail end of last year, going for 143 yards and three touchdowns on just 24 carries. Ingram has also added four catches for 22 yards and he already is halfway towards his total catches from last season.
Thomas did not have a big game against the Browns with just 16 yards rushing on three carries and three catches for 16 yards, but he will have a bigger role going forward. Thomas has 47 yards rushing this season and nine catches for 74 yards and after making 77 catches for 513 yards last season, he should continue to put up great numbers for PPR owners. Robinson is more hit and miss, but now that Ingram is out he should be getting more touches.
Robinson has the chance to be the TD man in the red zone and that would be big for fantasy owners, as he has the size to be a goal line back. Robinson had 31 yards on eight carries against the Browns and he comes into next week with 59 yards overall with one touchdown. Last season Robinson averaged over four yards per carry and he is doing that again already this season and if he can continue that, he should be a solid option in deeper fantasy leagues.
