Saints RB Hamilton out for season
The New Orleans Saints received their first piece of bad news of the year. Running back Lynell Hamilton has torn his right anterior cruciate ligament and will miss all of the 2010 season.
The injury occurred during an inter-squad practice featuring the defending champs and the New England Patriots. This type of injury takes a full year of recovery. Hamilton had been used in training camp on special-teams and in short-yardage situations.
"It was something that was kind of a freak deal," Saints coach Sean Payton said after the practice.
Hamilton crumpled to the turf midway through practice and had to be helped off the field by two trainers. Hamilton appeared in nine games last season, starting one and rushed for 125 yards on 35 carries and scored two touchdowns.
We saw a lot of him a year ago," Payton said. "He played quite a bit for us in the kicking game as well as on offense. He's certainly a guy that factored in last year and contributed quite a bit."
The team had a very deep backfield last year. They spread carries between Pierre Thomas, Mike Bell and Reggie Bush. Bell signed with the Philadelphia Eagles this offseason, promoting Hamilton to the third-string job.
Patriots’ linebacker Tully Banta-Cain pointed out that having three running backs with different styles provided balance to the Saints offence and was a reason for their success.
"When teams have three-headed monsters or two-headed monsters in the backfield, you've really got to know who is back there and how to play them," Banta-Cain said. "They're a dynamic group and they can do a lot of things. They present different problems. Each one of them has a different style of running the ball, so you really have to know who you're up against. Reggie's a really fast explosive player and Pierre's a stronger, downhill type of runner, so you've got the best of both worlds in their backfield. So it creates problems for the defence."
The Saints offence may be pass-first with arguably the league’s best quarterback in Drew Brees, but their ability to balance the run and pass was crucial to their success last year. Prior to last year, the offence was one-dimensional, only affective through the air. Finding that balance last year provided the Saints with an extra means of attack and helped them to the franchise’s first Super Bowl.
Of course, injuries are all a part of training camp and the Saints shouldn’t let this affect their season too much. They’re stacked in talent and have many places to turn.
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