An NFL team made Alvin Kamara’s nose ring a pre-draft issue

Alvin Kamara fell to the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft, and at least one team had a flimsy reason for likely passing on him.

Those who looked past surface stats, and accounted for his light workload in college, saw potential in Alvin Kamara. But he still fell to the third round (No. 67 overall) in the 2017 NFL Draft, and the New Orleans Saints have reaped the benefits.

After Adrian Peterson was removed from the Saints’ running back rotation, the way was paved for Kamara to post over 1,500 total yards while leading the league in yards per carry (6.1) as a rookie. He followed that up with 18 total touchdowns last year (14 rushing), while catching 81 passes just as he did during his rookie season.

It’s safe to say the other 31 teams, or at least the chunk of those who were looking at running backs during the 2017 pre-draft process, regret passing on Kamara in the draft. But at least one team has to be particularly kicking itself.

During and interview with Andrew Hawkins of Uninterrupted.com, told the story about a pre-draft meeting with a team.

"I had a team before I went into a meeting, one of the guys came up to me and was like, ‘Well, you’re about to go in with the G.M. so, you know, he doesn’t really understand the nose rings and things like that. So you might want to — can you take them out or tuck them?’ I was like, ‘No.’“Basically, if you don’t understand it or you don’t like it, then you don’t need to draft me. It wouldn’t be a good choice to draft me."

NFL teams don’t always handle pre-draft meetings well, with bizarre, irrelevant questions that don’t matter to someone’s football ability or his ability to avoid trouble off the field. But for one team, and quite possibly others, Kamara’s nose ring was an issue that needed to be noted based on a general manager’s discomfort with it. Ultimately he landed where he was meant to with the Saints, in a situation as good as any in the league for a running back.