NFL teams have wasted no time moving big names ahead of this year’s in-season trade deadline, with Davante Adams and Amari Cooper both finding new homes in recent days. Now, the New Orleans Saints should waste no time shopping one of their most accomplished players: star running back Alvin Kamara.
Thursday always had a chance to be ugly for New Orleans, with a severely battered lineup pitted against old friend Sean Payton’s defensively sound Denver Broncos — and it was. The Saints lost 33-10. What the Saints’ helpless showing suggested, however, is that things may only get worse. Quarterback Derek Carr is still ailing alongside countless others. Rookie Spencer Rattler has no cohesive supporting cast on which to lean.
And Kamara, once a standard-setter for dual-threat playmakers, and a surprisingly central piece of the club’s now-forgotten surge to start the 2024 season, has no role in the midst of the chaos.
The five-time Pro Bowler only hit a half-dozen carries in the fourth quarter of Thursday’s blowout. Cameras caught him visibly frustrated with the Saints’ sideline earlier in the game. And he’s now averaged fewer than 3.5 yards per carry in four of his last five matchups, gasping for air behind a beleaguered front. As if that weren’t enough, the Saints kept him on the field deep into the fourth quarter against Denver, trailing 23 points as rehabbing starters like Carr, Taysom Hill, etc. watched comfortably from the side.
When operating at full speed in a healthy lineup, Kamara remains capable of splash plays. But if ever the Saints were going to buck their own stubborn trend, confront reality and embrace rather than resist a longer-term rebuild, they’d sell that home run talent to the rest of the NFL. The return wouldn’t necessarily be rich for a 29-year-old running back with an injury history and lofty 2025 price tag; Kamara is due a whopping $29 million in the final year of a contract extension he signed back in 2020.
It’d be something, though, and the acquiring team could easily view it as a half-season rental, considering Kamara can be released in the offseason to save anywhere from $18 million to $25 million in 2025. Which clubs might be suitors, should the Saints actually field or solicit offers? Here are three possibilities:
Kamara might have to redo his deal to facilitate this, considering Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’ unwillingness to pay a premium for, say, Derrick Henry in the offseason. Dallas sorely lacks a punch in the ground game, though, and Dak Prescott could use a more formidable group of secondary pass targets after CeeDee Lamb. Kamara would certainly be getting a glitzier spotlight here.
Denver Broncos
That’s right. Sean Payton didn’t need Kamara to roll over his old team on Thursday, but he might be open to robbing New Orleans of his old pal just to definitively close the book on his Saints tenure. The Broncos already have a committee backfield, leaning heavily on the run game, and Kamara’s pass-catching prowess would give rookie quarterback Bo Nix arguably his best safety valve yet.
Everyone’s talking about a potential wide receiver trade for the reigning Super Bowl champions, but what about a blockbuster reinforcement for the running backfield, with Isiah Pacheco hurt? Kareem Hunt has fared well in relief, but can he stay healthy down the stretch? Andy Reid would almost surely prefer a higher-upside alternative, and Kamara would give him another do-it-all weapon for Patrick Mahomes.
