Saints rookie running back Alvin Kamara has gotten off to a good start in the preseason with nine carries for 96 yards and one catch for 22 yards in his first two games.
That’s surely pleased his new team after they dealt a 2018 second-round pick to the 49ers in order to select Kamara in the third round of this year’s draft, but it has also reportedly left a sour puss on some faces around the Jets.
Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News reports that there were some in the organization who wanted General Manager Mike Maccagnan to make “an aggressive play” for Kamara before the deal that landed him in New Orleans. Those people are reportedly “still miffed” that the Jets didn’t make a move to add a playmaker to an offense devoid of them.
The fact that the Jets don’t have those kinds of players on offense this season is one quick reason why Maccagnan didn’t trade future assets for Kamara this year. Good as he might be, a rookie running back on this Jets offense isn’t likely to move the needle enough for the team to avoid having a very high pick in the second round next season -- assuming the trade package would have been the same -- that can be put toward a rebuilding process that’s got miles to go before anyone sleeps.
There’s no certainty that such a process is going to bear fruit, but if the Jets are committed to a course of action they have to remain committed to it even if someone they like comes along in the third round of the draft. That may not make it any easier to watch Kamara thrive in New Orleans, but it does a lot to explain why Maccagnan went the other way.