Chris Ivory's rise to New Orleans Saints' lead-back status welcomed

He's still too limited to be a "featured back", i.e. he evidently doesn't have the grasp of the passing game to be on the field on downs where he's not going to be either getting the handoff or going play-action. The number of downs played by guys such as Ladell Betts and Julius Jones this year attests to that. As long as he's running like this, though, we're going to do more of the things that he does well: heavy set, I formation and two tight ends with Meachem flanked out, pound it and run play action. And physically, the sky is the limit. He's a powerful, angry runner with speed to break a long run. If he gets acclimated to the passing game and continues getting more consistent with his decision-making, he has the physical skills to be elite.