10:20pm: The Saints and Kamara have finalized the reworked deal, based on NFL.com’s Mike Garafolo and Ian Rapoport. “Alvin’s goal, and the team’s goal, was for him to stay with the and retire a Saint,” the RB’s agent, Brad Cicala, said. Although precise terms are still not known, though The Exhibit’s Josina Anderson confirms it’s a pay cut, Kamara is ready to play out the through-2026 deal he signed in 2024.
3:16pm: While the franchise tag deadline didn’t produce any drama this 12 months, the Saints are making some news today. Despite signing Travis Etienne in March, Recent Orleans intends to retain Alvin Kamara for a minimum of yet another season.
Kamara is positioned to stick with the Saints for a tenth 12 months, with NewOrleans.football’s Nick Underhill (together with former Saints Pro Bowler Terron Armstead) reporting the perimeters are finalizing a reworked contract. One season remained on Kamara’s two-year Saints extension, which he had signed through the 2024 season, but Etienne’s arrival clouded the previous Pro Bowler’s status. Kamara indeed will accept a pay cut, Underhill adds, though it’s unclear how much of a trim will happen.
The Saints gave Etienne a four-year, $48MM free agency accord that included $24MM guaranteed at signing. Benefiting to a level from Breece Hall not being available (via the franchise tag), the five-year Jaguar is poised to supplant Kamara because the Saints’ top back. The Etienne signing brought more Kamara trade rumors, but months passed with out a resolution.
In May, GM Mickey Loomis said Kamara didn’t have a call to make regarding a pay cut. Every week later, a report indicated no pay cut had been discussed. The small print of Kamara’s latest Saints agreement usually are not known, but he’ll collect a reduced figure from the as much as $11.5MM he was to earn this 12 months. Kamara, 31 next week, signed a two-year deal value $24.5MM; the Saints guaranteed him $19.23MM at signing in October 2024.
Kamara secured a $3MM guarantee for 2026 by being on the Saints’ roster in March 2025. He entered the offseason carrying a cap variety of $18.12MM, however the perennially cap-strapped Saints utilized the CBA’s 50% rule — which stipulates a player’s salary and bonuses have to are available in above the remaining prorated amount of that 12 months’s signing bonus — to scale back it. In consequence of that offseason adjustment, Recent Orleans already dropped Kamara’s 2026 cap number to $10.45MM. It appears the team is proceeding with an easier resolution here, with this pay cut set to form an Etienne-Kamara duo for a minimum of one season.
Starting his profession 5-for-5 in Pro Bowl nods, Kamara has done well for himself financially within the NFL. The previous Sean Payton chess piece agreed to a five-year, $75MM extension before the 2020 season and played four-plus years on on that contract. Although Kamara was heavily rumored to change into a 2025 Saints cap casualty, the perimeters agreed on an extension that brought a hefty guarantee for the then-29-year-old RB. Kamara has made greater than $67MM in his profession, per OverTheCap.
The nine-year Saint might be the very best running back in franchise history. Kamara’s five Pro Bowls are three greater than every other Saints RB. While the likes of Deuce McAllister, Dalton Hilliard, Rueben Mayes, George Rogers and Chuck Muncie experienced success in Recent Orleans, Kamara’s body of labor — and role within the team’s late-2010s resurgence — stands out amongst this crowd. Although Fred McAfee played until age 38, the RB/special-teamer spent five midcareer years away from Recent Orleans. Mark Ingram played 10 Saints seasons but in addition frolicked away from the team during his profession. A 2017 third-round pick, Kamara is a career-long Saint.
A 2023 suspension and a run of injuries have moved Kamara away from the highest tier on the position. The Tennessee product’s age and 2025 injury led to the Saints signing Etienne, who’s going into an age-27 season. The team also rosters Kendre Miller, Devin Neal and free agent pickup Ty Chandler. Wednesday’s agreement, nevertheless, definitely points to Etienne and Kamara coexisting.
Kamara has expressed a desire to be a one-team player, going so far as to say retirement if he were traded last 12 months. The Saints held onto him on the deadline but saw an MCL sprain end his season not long after. Kamara suffered knee sprains through the 2019 and ’21 seasons, while he also missed seven games between the 2023 and ’24 campaigns.
Twice a second-team All-Pro, Kamara made a substantial difference within the Saints finding their footing again in 2017. The team made 4 straight playoff berths, with its impact 2017 draft class riding shotgun to Drew Brees on the time. Kamara and Ingram formed a lethal tandem from the beginning of the younger back’s profession, and Kamara quickly usurped the 2011 first-rounder because the team’s top run-game option.
Toiling within the NFL’s middle class for more often than not since that string of postseason berths, the Saints have used Kamara as their regular RB starter. He produced 1,493 scrimmage yards and eight touchdowns in 2024. Last season, nevertheless, brought a step back. Kamara averaged a career-low 3.6 yards per carry and finished with just 657 scrimmage yards in an 11-game slate.
The Saints will nevertheless give him one other likelihood, via this fourth contract. This might find yourself being Kamara’s final Saints season, nevertheless it marks a second instance of the team opting to finish a brand new contract relatively than part ways with the backfield cornerstone.