Five players to watch in Thursday Night Jaguars vs. Saints: Kamara, Lawrence, Allen

Two teams with early season playoff ambitions square off from the Louisiana as the Jacksonville Jaguars travel to New Orleans to take on the Saints from the Caesars Superdome.

The Jags head into the Week 7 opener on a three game win streak which included a two week stint overseas, and a home win over the Colts. The Saints have lost two of their last three and are desperate to get their offense rolling to give their defense a bit of a break. There will be plenty of story lines to keep an eye on Thursday night, but here are the players you can expect to have big games from the Big Easy.

Alvin Kamara

After serving a three game suspension, the Saints running back returned to the backfield against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4. New Orleans lost that game, but Kamara had 51 yards on 11 carries and dragged in 13 receptions in his first game back from suspension. He has yet to run for 100 yards, and that is really something the Saints could use. They have had to rely on Derek Carr, but their drives tend to stall once they reach the red zone. They have scored touchdowns on just 37% of their red zone trips, but Kamara’s dual threat ability is only going to help New Orleans as he and Derek Carr’s chemistry continue to grow.

Derek Carr

The veteran gunslinger was supposed to solve the post Drew Bress quarterback troubles in New Orleans, but as of today that hasn’t been the case. He was a quarterback that never made the next step with the Raiders, and a move was the best case scenario for both teams. The offense hasn’t taken off just yet, and that usually falls on the quarterbacks shoulders. Carr won’t blame the fact that he suffered a sprained AC joint against the Packers, but that hasn’t helped finding that fluidity in the offense for Dennis Allen’s side. Getting Kamara back will help, but we have only seen shades of him starting to connect with his receivers. After six games, he has five TDs and three INTs. Carr’s thrown for 300 yards in two games this season, but that didn’t translate to a win against the Texans on Sunday.

Trevor Lawrence

Jacksonville’s QB1 has said it more than once during the early part of the season. The offense is yet to hit stride and sometimes it can look down right ugly, but they have been getting the job done. Going to London and playing a game, let alone two games, always seems to be tougher on the offense than it is on the defense and that looked to be the case against the Falcons and Bills. Last week he threw for the least amount of yards he has all season, but the Jags put up 37 points in large part due to their defense which created four turnovers against the Colts.

Josh Allen

The defense has been the foundation for the Jags success this season. They have only had one off night all season, and that came against the Texans in a tricky divisional battle against an zoned in rookie QB. Over the course of their three game win streak Jacksonville is giving up just 15.6 points a game, and the dominance of the Jags D is much attributed to their EDGE rusher, Josh Allen. Allen is one of the most understated defensive stars in the league, and has already forced two fumbles including one last week against the Colts. This season he has 21 tackles, 10 of which came in the season opener against the Colts, the same game in which he had three sacks. He had another hat trick of sacks against the Falcons in London.

Chris Olave

The second year receiver out of Ohio State should be in the same conversation as Ja’Maar Chase and Justin Jefferson, but being in New Orleans has kept him out of that conversation. He had a 1,000 yard season after catching 72 passes with Andy Dalton and Jameis Winston as is QBs last season. This year has 414 yards on 32 carries in just a third of the season. While his stats are good, he has had the same problem the rest of the Saints offense is having this year. He has just one TD, which came in the 34-0 blowout over the New England Patriots. The three headed monster of Carr, Kamara and Olave can be a combo that can turn this season around for the Saints, but they are yet to show their full potential.