Fantasy Football: Assessing Mark Ingram’s value for 2019
It’s never too early to evaluate players for Fantasy Football, and Mark Ingram has interesting value after joining the Baltimore Ravens this off-season.
The 2019 NFL Draft is right around the corner, which means that the final moves for the 2019 off-season will be wrapping up soon (in theory). Once that happens, it’s time to start making projections for the 2019 season, whether this be win/loss records, potential Super Bowl match-ups, or stat predictions. For many, it will be time to start setting our Fantasy Football draft boards.
A lot of exciting moves happened over the last few months, including some superstar players going to new teams. Antonio Brown went to Oakland. Le’Veon Bell went to New York (Jets). Odell Beckham went to Cleveland. Truly, the NFL and Fantasy Football landscape has changed drastically.
Certainly, we are in for a groundbreaking Fantasy Football season in 2019. However, lost in all these big moves was a Fantasy Football darling moving over to a new team after a diminishing role with his previous squad. That man is running back Mark Ingram.
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Mark Ingram has been fantastic in recent seasons. Since 2014, the year Ingram started to finally put everything together, he has finished no worse than 28th among running backs in standard scoring leagues (per FantasyPros.com). That 28th rank was in 2018, in which Ingram missed four games due to suspension. Had he played all 16 games, he would’ve finished 17th.
With that in mind, Mark Ingram’s Fantasy Football career since 2014 goes according:
- 2014–15th
- 2015–15th
- 2016–10th
- 2017–6th
- 2018–28th (17th projected for full-season).
That’s the kind of consistency that Fantasy owners eat up. However, all this success came with the New Orleans Saints, who let Ingram walk this off-season due to the emergence of star running back Alvin Kamara. Ingram then made his way to Baltimore and signed a three-year deal worth $15 million. What’s this do for his Fantasy football value?
Mark Ingram is still a solid RB2:
The Ravens have historically been a run-heavy team, and Mark Ingram fits what they look for in their running backs perfectly. Based off of Ingram’s previous five-seasons, he is averaging 909 rushing yards per season and 7.8 rushing touchdowns. With the Baltimore Ravens, those numbers seem more than attainable.
Ingram only just turned 29-years old in December, and with his light-workload in New Orleans (averaging 194 total touches per season) he seems more than capable of remaining a team’s lead back. That’s great news for Fantasy owners, as having undisputed starting running backs is as sexy as it gets in the Fantasy Football world.
While Mark Ingram has never been an elite Fantasy Football running back, he remains a fan-favorite among the position. Even when Alvin Kamara took over the Saints backfield, Ingram was still a very present force in New Orleans’ offense and in Fantasy Football. Now, Ingram has nearly no competition in Baltimore for bulk touches. The more touches, the more opportunities, and I don’t need to explain why that’s a good thing.
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So, for all you Fantasy Football nuts starting to organize your big-board, don’t overlook Mark Ingram. Ingram is still very much a quality starter for your team. While Ingram never quite became a RB1 Fantasy option in his career, he has peaked as a solid-to-great RB2 option. With the Ravens, that will be no different. A 1,000 rushing yard season is perfectly within reach, as are ~45 receptions and eight total touchdowns. Ingram isn’t elite, but he could be a bargain player who wins you games regularly with stability and consistency.