The Alvin Kamara saga is over. He and the New Orleans Saints agreed to a reworked deal on Wednesday, and we now have the details of the new deal. Seeing that he'll be playing second fiddle to Travis Etienne Jr, this new deal makes a lot of sense for what the Saints will ask of Kamara.
Originally, Kamara was due $11.5 million in base salary. That number has now shrunk , per ESPN's Katherine Terrell, to a $6 million base salary, with incentives that could take the contract up to $8.5 million. It's a major drop for Kamara, but it's unsurprising that he took it.
Kamara has maintained that he wanted to be a part of this team. He's aware his role is changing, so no one should be caught off guard that he accepted the deal. Those extra incentives give him a chance to outplay expectations and earn more cash.
Alvin Kamara's pay now matches his role in the Saints backfield
We always knew taking a pay cut was on the way. When Mickey Loomis and Kellen Moore were slim on words, it felt like the topic they were always dancing around. Kamara was even asked about it during his appearance at voluntary OTAs.
Kamara told reporters he hadn't been approached about a pay cut yet, creating more frustration about how the situation had been handled. Better late than never.
Kamara is coming off his worst season of his career, and the Saints brought in Etienne this offseason. Had the latter not happened, maybe the Saints would have pushed for a less aggressive cut or no cut at all. The pair of the two made this a no brainer.
Etienne will take over as the lead back, and it was going to be hard to justify paying Kamara double digit millions to play second fiddle. It'd be even harder to justify paying him to play that role after the season he just had.
There's still a little extra in it for Kamara. Aaron Jones had a similar season last year. Kamara kept a higher base salary and the benefit of incentives.
Those incentives are what really make it a win for Kamara. We don't have the details of the incentives, but it gives himself to bet on himself. That's likely the part of the restructure he pushed for.
There may be doubts about Kamara's abilities at the current moment, but it wasn't to the point of wondering if he needed to be off the team. It just needed to be at the right price, and this contract gives both sides a reason to feel like walked away from the pay cut with something.
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