Saints Plan to Make Alvin Kamara Decision “Over The Next Week or Two”

You always hear pro athletes and coaches talk about the "business" side of their games. Between signing bonuses and salary caps, much of what a team does in a year is decided with the dollars and cents. If you put all of your money into one position, the rest of your roster suffers.

But at the same time, if you don't pay your superstars, they leave.

This is the position the New Orleans Saints find themselves in as they stare down a major decision with franchise legend Alvin Kamara.

What Is Happening With The Saints and Alvin Kamara

Kamara is entering the final year of his contract, and he's set to make a big chunk of money...which is a big portion of the Saints' salary cap. That total is $11.5 million that Kamara is set to make in 2026, which in football terms is a lot for a 31-year-old running back.

Especially when the team just signed a free agent running back, Travis Etienne, to a four year contact that averages $11.8 million per season.

So as the team starts OTAs, Kamara is nowhere to be seen. But maybe we shouldn't read that much into it, because the running back hasn't attended the voluntary workouts in a few years.

As ESPN put it, the Saints can ask Kamara to take a pay cut, release him after June 1st, or trade him. In the same piece from ESPN, they had a quote from Saints General Manager Mickey Loomis that sounded a little like the decision has already been made, but they're just running the clock out. He said:

"We're just trying to see how he's going to fit in our roster, and obviously there's a resource management element to it, and we'll get to that over the next week or two"

While it does leave the door open to having the best running back duo in the NFL, it also sounds like the Saints are setting the groundwork to explain the franchise getting rid of Kamara. The "resource management" comment feels like its phrased that way for a reason.

This one is probably going to hurt for some, because Kamara has been one of the few positives in seasons where the Saints didn't have much else. He's spent years as the best player on the roster, and has become a fan favorite inside the city. If they let him go, its going to make some fans angry.