New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara has been named as the Offensive Rookie of the Year. This is tremendous news for the Saints, who now have something to feel happy about after a heartbreaking loss to the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship Game.

Kamara had a tight competition prior to taking home the plum. Fellow rookie running backs in Kareem Hunt of the Kansas City Chiefs and in Leonard Fournette of the Jacksonville Jaguars also had strong performances in their first year in the league, Carolina Panthers running back Christian McCaffrey, Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, and Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson all also had quality rookie campaigns, but none was able to make the same impact on their respective teams that Kamara had on the Saints. Kamara secured 28 votes to win the award, while Hunt and Watson had 21 and one, respectively.

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Selected 67th overall in the third round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Saints, the 27-year-old tailback formed a deadly backfield duo with Mark Ingram, becoming just the first running back tandem to finish a season with at least 1,500 total yards each. Ingram played in all of the Saints’ 16 regular-season games, and while he only had 728 rushing yards, he managed to get eight touchdowns and average an impressive 6.1 yards per carry. Alvin Kamara was also a key figure downfield for the Saints’ passing game in 2017, finishing with 825 receiving yards and five touchdown catches.

With Kamara boosting further the Drew Brees-led Saints’ offense, New Orleans concluded the regular season fourth in scoring offense (28.0 points), second in total yards (391.2), and fifth in rushing yards (261.8) per game.