Breaking Down Travis Etienne & Alvin Kamara For 2026 Fantasy Football
Fantasy

Breaking Down Travis Etienne & Alvin Kamara For 2026 Fantasy Football

Ian Hartitz breaks down how to approach the NO Saints backfield in 2026 fantasy football.

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The Saints made a free agency splash this offseason by signing Jags workhorse Travis Etienne to the squad, leaving the future of Saints' longtime staple in the backfield, Alvin Kamara, up in the air. Ian Hartitz breaks down how he's approaching this backfield as part of his 2026 New Orleans Saints fantasy football team preview.

NO_saints-logo.svgHow big a role should we expect for Travis Etienne?

Etienne finished 2025 as the RB14 in PPR points per game and is still just 27 years young. He deserves credit for proving capable of functioning across all three downs, even earning PFF's second-highest pass blocking grade among RBs last season. The man made some great plays!

And yet, there are at least some red-ish flags to consider:

  • There was a noticeable dip in efficiency here throughout last season: Etienne averaged a robust 5 yards per carry in Weeks 1-9 compared to just 3.6 the rest of the way.
  • Kudos to Etienne for executing the plays, but man, a LOT of his receiving success sure seemed to be of the schemed variety. Not to suggest he's a bad receiver; it's just tough to point to a massive skill improvement as the reason for him catching six touchdowns in 2025 after having just one during the first three seasons of his career.
  • The once diabolical home-run speed is pretty much gone. Guys like J.K. Dobbins, Chris Rodriguez, Chuba Hubbard and Blake Corum all posted a faster top-ball-carrier speed than Etienne last season (Next-Gen Stats).

This brings us to the swaggy soon-to-be 31-year-old elephant in the room: Is Alvin Kamara going to be a member of the 2026 Saints? He reported to OTAs—a surprise to Kellen Moore—and is seemingly planning on playing football this season. The Saints would only save $376,000 against the cap by cutting him at this point, and they would be forced to eat $10.1 million in dead money.

Let's assume Kamara is on the Saints' Week 1 roster … are we positive ETN is going to see the sort of three-down workload that he probably needs to work out at his RB15 (pick 28.4) ADP? Fantasy Life Projections are a bit doubtful and presently have Etienne ranked as the RB19 behind guys being drafted later, like Cam Skattebo and Kyren Williams.

Look, if Kamara is out, we could be looking at 350-plus touch upside here. That's more than enough to warrant a move to the RB1 borderline (at worst) ahead of Breece Hall and maybe Omarion Hampton or Jeremiyah Love. And maybe Etienne wins out anyway, but he did just finish as "only" the RB14 in PPR points per game as the undisputed lead back in an offense that ranked sixth in scoring. The 2025 Saints ranked 28th in scoring. Initial Fantasy Life Projections have them tied for 26th in offensive touchdowns per game in 2026.

Alvin Kamara Fantasy Football Outlook For 2026

Meanwhile, I can't stop drafting Kamara in best ball at his RB57 ADP (pick 190.6). Did he look rough last season? Yes. Did he finish as the overall RB5 in PPR points per game in 2024? Also yes. The risk is that Kamara stays true to his declaration that he would just go drink "piña coladas" if traded and/or the Saints decide to complicate matters by requesting a pay cut. For what it's worth, Kamara has been clear that he wants to be a Saint, most recently on June 3, when asked if he plans to fulfill his contract, he said, "Nothing is out of the ordinary of what I do every year. I'm a Saint. If anything happens, we'll go from there."

It sure seems like Kamara is planning and preparing to play football this season. Should we completely take his mid-season Piña colada joke at face value? What if he does indeed agree to a trade to link up with old friend Sean Payton? Or if a somewhat RB-needy contender like Seattle or Baltimore decides they need additional depth? There are plenty of outs to paying off this literal Round 16-17 ADP … and admittedly one possible scenario where the financial future of my family is absolutely RUINED.

Players Mentioned in this Article

  1. Travis Etienne
    TravisEtienne
    RBNONO
    PPG
    14.1
    Proj
    195.2
  2. Alvin Kamara
    AlvinKamara
    RBNONO
    PPG
    7.7
    Proj
    99.0

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