3 Takeaways: Details of Alvin Kamara’s contract extension with Saints

By Ross Jackson

NEW ORLEANS — The details for the New Orleans Saints’ two-year contract extension for running back Alvin Kamara are now available. The team finally got the deal done after an offseason of negotiations had initially stalled before the season began. However, the long week between the organization’s Week 7 and Week 8 games proved fruitful in progressing the conversation and putting ink to paper. 

ESPN’s Katherine Terrell shared the details of the deal. There are elements that are wins for both the team and the player. Let’s break them down with our biggest takeaways from the extensions and its terms. 

1. The Saints saved a substantial amount of salary with this move.

In combined 2024 and 2025 salary, the Saints saved just over $20 million by getting this deal done. Kamara’s $18.5 million cap hit was reduced to $16.1 million, leading to $2.4 million saved in 2024. In 2025, the team will save nearly $19 million because of a reduction to Kamara’s swollen initial cap hit. The hit was sitting at $29 million, but his enormous base salary was not guaranteed. 

It was a mechanism to boost the average per year value of the life of the deal. That money was never expected to be paid out, which is partly why Kamara pushed so far for an extension now, so that he could have a future commitment as opposed to a nice yearly average. He got exactly that, and saved the team quite a bit of dough along the way. 

The Saints were originally more than $81 million over next year’s salary cap, now they’re estimated to rest at about $62 million over for 2025. A lot of work to be done just to be compliant. But this helped considerably. It also is practically the same as if the Saints had moved on from Kamara this offseason. The dead money and new money difference here is negligible. The difference? The team keeps Kamara on the field in their jersey.

2. The deal keeps Kamara in the NFL’s top-5 in average per year value.

Kamara’s average per year value will drop from $15 million to $12.25 million placing him as the No. 4 highest paid running back in the NFL. That knocked him down from the No. 2 spot he held on to before the deal. But again, Kamara’s intent was to get a commitment for future years, not reset the market or make a greater average. In fact, his base salary in 2026 is again swollen, showing that the guarantees in 2025 were the most important part for this particular negotiation.

3. New Orleans still has flexibility in 2026.

Kamara’s $11.5 million 2026 base salary is largely non-guaranteed. A parting of ways with the running back at that time would result in a portion of additional saved salary. However, that may not be necessary. Kamara seems intent on finishing his career with New Orleans. Meaning that if he were to retire, the team would be in good shape in 2026 as well. They could make the move to reduce his base salary (much like former quarterback Drew Brees did) to help save the team even more. Otherwise, New Orleans will continue to have the freedom to continue to restructure his contract. But it seems like those days may be long gone sooner rather than later.