The New Orleans Saints were one play away from putting Alvin Kamara in the game at quarterback Sunday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
The Saints entered Sunday's game carrying four quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, but two of them — Taysom Hill and Ian Book — were inactive. A third, starter Jameis Winston, was lost for the season with a torn ACL in the first quarter.
So who would've gone in to play quarterback had backup Trevor Siemian also suffered an injury Sunday?
"Yesterday it was Kamara," said Saints coach Sean Payton with a laugh during his weekly appearance on the WWL-AM Coaches Show.
Payton explained that coaches for both teams are given a sheet of paper before the game informing them which players are wearing a green dot on their helmet, which signals they are equipped to receive communication from the sidelines.
When going up against a team with two active quarterbacks, Payton always finds himself looking to see who the emergency quarterback would be.
"So Tampa Bay's got Tom Brady, for instance, then their next quarterback, Blaine Gabbert, and their No. 3 is (tight end) Cameron Brate," Payton said. "He played high school quarterback, and he played at my old high school."
Normally that's not an issue for the Saints, who typically dress three quarterbacks on game day because of Hill's multipurpose role. But with Hill out the last two weeks with a concussion, that's changed.
Kamara has attempted one pass in his NFL career, completing a 13-yarder to Josh Hill against the Buccaneers in 2019. But during training camp, he jokingly got on the media for not including him in the discussion for the starting quarterback job.
"No offseason talk of me in the quarterback battle? Nothing. No ESPN hot takes? Nothing," Kamara said after an August 20 practice. "I'm keeping my arm hot. If both (Winston and Hill) want to retire or do something, I'll be there. I'll be alright. I'll throw a (No. 9 uniform) on too, for Drew (Brees)."
As fun as that may have been, Payton didn't want to test Kamara's quarterbacking abilities out.
"The first thing I told Trevor when he went in is, 'Hey, I don't want you taking any hits,'" Payton said.
Kamara did take one direct snap against the Buccaneers Sunday, running the quarterback power play the Saints usually use Hill for. In an emergency, maybe the team would allow him to expand his repertoire a bit.
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