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.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, if you don’t pay your superstars, they leave.<\/p>\n
This is the position the New Orleans Saints<\/a> find themselves in as they stare down a major decision with franchise legend Alvin Kamara.<\/p>\n What Is Happening With The Saints and Alvin Kamara<\/p>\n 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 <\/a>terms is a lot for a 31-year-old running back.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n (Photo by Justin Casterline\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n (Photo by Justin Casterline\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n As ESPN put it<\/a>, 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 <\/a>that sounded a little like the decision has already been made, but they’re just running the clock out. He said:<\/p>\n “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”<\/p>\n