Ingram was not very good his first two seasons but I'm not going to parse stats, I'll include them because to me it sounds like you are saying he's a JAG. Since Ingram came into the league only two Saints RB's have averaged more than his 4.52 YPC. Ivory at 5.4 but he only ran for 217 yards and Sproles as 4.6 but he only ran for 466. Ingram has run for 3,574 during this time.Ummm, Thomas last played for the Saints in 2014. It was Hightower who took over last year due to injury.
I have been a fan since '88, I doubt I've missed five games in the last 28 years.
Ingram is just not as good as you guys think he is. He has improved as a receiver and pass blocker since the early days. He runs very hard and hits holes well. He is good for one cut. He has excellent balance. He is not a good goal line or short yardage back. He has no instincts for turning a one-yard gain into a two or three-yard gain. For a 5' 9" power back I have never seen anyone so easy for a defender to stand up. Nobody gets stacked up and pushed back as much as he does. There is no ability to twist, squirm or drive for the extra yard. He is the kind of back who is extremely dependent on the quality of the offensive line. If the line blocks for a one-yard gain, that's what he will get. If they open a hole he can hit it and get 10 or twelve. He would have been great on the 99 Broncos or the 93 Cowboys, but he's not that good on the Saints of the Teens. He is expensive and the Saints have shown they can find guys like Hightower, Thomas, Ivory etc. off the scrap heap who can produce at a similar level (he is better than Hightower). He does not have a great track record of staying healthy. The list of guys I would rather have as the feature back on the Saints is long.
If you remove third down from equation, when power backs like Ingram typically see a lower YPC on third and short and pass catching backs like Sproles typically see a higher YPC we'll see that Ingram is still 4.5 and Sproles drops down to 4.2 and Khiry
Total RB carries on first and second down since Ingram arrived is: Ingram has 3,301 yards and a 4.55 YPA and the entire rest of the RB's on the team in this timeframe have combined for 3,479 yards and a 4.05 YPA. Of those carries that make up rest of team 85% of the carries
So I don't know, no one is saying he is special or Adrian Peterson but he's got a pretty lengthy track record which shows he is easily the best runner on the team since he's been on the team and a full half a yard per carry over the average of rest of backs is fairly significant.