wasn’tEven in the offseason, the New Orleans Saints weren’t sure whether they should keep Alvin Kamara.
He had a bigger contract than they wanted, and they had just signed Travis Etienne to be their new No. 1 running back. Despite all Kamara had done for the Saints, he seemed like he could be on his way out of town.
In the end, the Saints and Kamara restructured his contract. They made it a lot more palatable to keep Kamara on their books for this season. He was slated to be a solid complement to Etienne on the RB depth chart.
This season hasn’t gone how the Saints wanted, though. Etienne hurt his hamstring. An early upset of the Ravens proved to be nothing but a mirage.
New Orleans is 2-5 coming out of its Week 8 bye and has just one game, on Sunday against the Cleveland Browns, before the NFL’s trade deadline on Tuesday, Nov. 10.
Kamara is being rumored all over the place as a trade candidate. And while he’s got a lot of name value to Saints fans, at this point, a trade would make a heck of a lot of sense.
Why Would Saints Trade Alvin Kamara?
The reality is that the Saints aren’t gaining anything be keeping Kamara around. Trading him is the best way to get one last bit of value out of him before his career is over.
ESPN’s Katherine Terrell wrote on Wednesday to answer the question of what the Saints’ goal is at the deadline. This is what she wrote:
“Get what they can. The Saints aren’t going to gain a lot of cap space from any trade because they restructured all of their major contracts, but now would be the time to see whether any of their older veterans who likely won’t be on the team in 2027 or younger players who aren’t contributing much could be sent to another team for a short-term gain. The Saints are struggling in enough areas that trying to acquire players at the trade deadline isn’t likely to make a major difference in their performance.”
New Orleans wasn’t planning on having the kind of season that would lead to a mindset like that, but this is where they find themselves. Kamara isn’t the only guy who could go, but he feels a bit like the face of it, and so until a move is made, his name will continue to come up.
Alvin Kamara Trade Cost
Given Kamara’s age and the likelihood that he’d be just a third-down back for an acquiring team, he’s probably only worth a late-round pick.
At this point, though, that’s better than keeping Kamara around, missing the playoffs and then just having him leave in free agency or retire and get nothing for him.
It’s not much, but beggars can’t be choosers.
Why Saints Would Trade Alvin Kamara