Stephen Lew-Imagn Images
By Ross Jackson
This is a real deep dive into the New Orleans Saints’ latest NFL salary cap magic, via their recent dealing with running back Alvin Kamara’s contract. It includes a lot of numbers and heavy contract language. So before we dive into the deep end, here are the most important things you need to know about this very intriguing situation.
Key Takeaways:
- Kamara is still set to be on the roster in 2026. However, New Orleans has lightened the impact should he depart for any reason.
- The Saints saved $8.1 million against the 2026 salary cap.
- No new guarantees were made in this salary conversion, which is a huge win for New Orleans and separates it from the run-of-the-mill restructure.
- Kamara’s contract voids on the final day of the 2026 league year.
Now, let’s get our hands dirty with the details.
A New Frontier
Every few years, the New Orleans Saints find some interesting lever that can be pulled in order to help them manage the salary cap.
While it’s easy to remember the restructure strategy of proverbially “kicking the can down the road” on contracts, the Saints have found some unique innovations along the way. Restructuring fifth-year options, loading up on roster bonuses for future moves and converting non-guaranteed salary into incentives have all been common practices the Saints have used.
On Friday, the team pulled off a new approach that many of us learned about in the moment. They did this by utilizing the Collective Bargaining Agreement’s (CBA) 50% Rule or “Deion Rule.” They also utilized the more commonly used “Step-Down” rule.
I spoke with several agents and league sources to try to pin down exactly how New Orleans made this work. What I have now is a circuitous, nerdy numbers breakdown that may still be missing some nuances, but is an intriguing and exciting new exploration into the NFL’s salary cap.
What is the 50% Rule?
This is a provision put in place to keep teams from stashing massive amounts of money into a contract that the team doesn’t intend to pay out. A signifier is typically when a player’s salary drops more than 50% from the present year to the next.
The clause is actually intended to be a deterrent, I’ve been told by several sources familiar with the CBA negotiations.
It’s a rule which forces a team to pay out half of the “future stash,” or money pushed into future years without a guarantee the player will receive that money, into the present year. New Orleans appears to have used this to their advantage in reworking Kamara’s contract.
Let’s break this down step-by-step as we aim to understand the rarely used move and why it actually helps the Saints to trigger the sanction.
Kamara’s Contract
I feel it always helps to establish a baseline when it comes to contracts and nuanced dealings with them.
Kamara carried the largest cap hit for any running back in the 2026 season at $18.6 million. That cap hit included an $11.5 million base salary, along with $3 million guaranteed and pre-existing proration of $3.071 million.
The most important number we’ll work with here is $11.5 million, but each number has its own importance. I’d say $11.5 million is the number we’ll break down the most while $18.6 million is important because it’s the number we’ll subtract from later to uncover the Saints’ savings.
Let’s start with how, why and what happened when the Saints went about restructuring Kamara’s deal.
The Restructure
It’s important to note that the Saints didn’t do a typical restructure here. In a standard restructure, which New Orleans used this offseason with center Erik McCoy, safety Justin Reid and tight end Juwan Johnson, a portion of the base salary is converted into a guaranteed signing bonus, which can be prorated over a maximum of five years.
A player’s salary cannot be reduced to any amount below veteran league minimum. In 2026, for a player with seven or more years of experience, the minimum is $1.3 million.
For example, if a player’s base salary in 2026 was $11.3 million with no previous prorates or bonuses, their team could reduce their base salary to the league minimum $1.3 million and spread the $10 million difference over five years at $2 million apiece.
That would take that player’s 2026 cap hit from $11.3 million to their base salary of $1.3 million and the new $2 million proration, saving the team $8 million in 2026.
The remaining funds are pushed into future years for accounting purposes. All of which would be guaranteed because the signing bonus has already been paid out to the player.
Matt Flynn, former NFL quarterback, discussed his experience with a contract restructure on Off The Bench.
Matt Flynn breaks down his own experience restructuring his contract in the NFL. 🏈#NFL #restructure @mflynn3 pic.twitter.com/zfUsDHL0k8
— 104.5 ESPN (@1045espn) March 6, 2026
For players, it’s an easy decision because they get paid a bunch of money up front, all of which they are guaranteed to receive. For a team, it’s a bit more conflicting because while the club saves money immediately it’s on the hook for all of those future dollars whether the player is on the roster or not.
What Made Kamara’s Different?
That’s how a common restructure works. However, what New Orleans did with Kamara’s deal is far from common.
The team reduced Kamara’s base salary of $11.5 million to 2027’s league minimum of $1.345 million. I’ll explain why they did that in a moment, but let’s focus on the proration first.
That means $10.155 million was converted to a non-guaranteed bonus of some kind. That’s crucial to the process because it’s the key difference from a standard restructure, which guarantees the converted salary to the player.
It’s the understanding of most that I spoke to that because the non-guaranteed bonus far outweighed the player salary, the rule kicked in.
It’s important to also circle back to the 2027 base salary decision. New Orleans reduced Kamara’s base to the 2027 vet minimum of $1.345 million as opposed to the 2026 minimum of $1.3 million.
Here’s why: First, the “Step-Down” rule goes into effect because the annual bonus proration will be greater than that of the veteran minimum. This is often triggered and effectively creates the “bonus” tag, even though the money is not guaranteed. The 50% Rule is triggered, as aforementioned, when a player’s second year salary (or next year) is less than half of the first (present year) and limits the amount of money that can be moved.
Because Kamara’s 2027 void year salary ($0) is obviously less than half the value of his initial 2026 salary ($11.5 million) the difference between the two salaries is what’s impacted by the rule. However, you can’t take the difference down to $0, so New Orleans took the difference between Kamara’s 2026 base and what would be the minimum of 2027.
The difference? $10.155 million.
The Rule’s Impact
Because of the rule’s impact, the difference between the two years ($10.155 million) must be prorated with 50% of the future spend being accounted for immediately. That breaks the $10.155 million into three groups, all dealing in fifths ($2.031 million in this case) because of the proration over five years.
- This year’s spend ($2.031 million): ⅕ is a naturally accounted for in 2026 as the proration would range from 2026 to 2030. Very much like the standard restructure I first introduced.
- The “pulled back” portion ($4.062 million): the remaining ⅖ must be accounted for this season.
- The “allowed” portion ($4.062 million): ⅖ that can be prorated. With one-fifth already out of the equation because it’s charged to the present year, ⅘ remains. Half of that amount is allowed to be prorated.
That means the charges are in two buckets.
- What must be accounted for this year: $6.093 million.
- What can be pushed as “future spend”: $4.062 million.
That is the result of the “penalty.” It’s basically saying “Hey, you can push all of that non-guaranteed money into future years like that. Therefore, you have to account for some of it now, limiting the money that can be saved against the cap.”
What it does not say, however, is “You must guarantee that ‘pulled back’ portion of the proration.”
This is where the Saints win. Because even with accounting for that $6.093 million in 2026, the money is not guaranteed, nor is the remaining future proration of $4.062 million. And, even with that $6.093 million on the books in 2026 as long as Kamara is on the roster, they still save a chunk of change.
The Savings
Congratulations! You’re out of the woods. At least the thick of it. Now, let’s talk about savings.
So what now factors into Kamara’s cap hit and how much did the Saints save?
As a refresher, Kamara’s initial cap hit before all of this was $18.6 million.
Kamara’s new cap hit includes three charges:
- New base salary: $1.345 million
- New “pulled back” proration: $6.093 million
- Old proration: $3.071 million
Kamara’s old cap hit: $18.6 million
Kamara’s new cap hit: $10.509 million
Savings: approximately $8.1 million
I consider myself good with cap figures, contracts, etc. but this was an entirely new frontier in research. The Saints effectively used a CBA deterrent to their advantage in order to save money, not guarantee future funds and even give themselves an off ramp should the Saints and Kamara split.
Kamara/Saints Split Potential
In my opinion, this crafty move was made as a means of saving money and not kicking the can down the road. Full stop. The escape hatch they have with Kamara, tied to no new guaranteed money beyond the originally guaranteed $3 million, is a byproduct of the move. Despite that, it’s a valuable one.
While it doesn’t strike me as being indicative of or a precursor to Kamara’s departure via being cut, traded or choosing to retire, it does provide a valuable safety measure that could come in handy should a surprise departure materialize.
Pending the terms of the bonus, if Kamara is cut, the charges beyond previous prorates and 2026’s $3 million guarantee would dissolve. If traded, the Saints’ previous prorations and the $6.093 million “pulled back prorate” remain on the books as the rest of the money follows him for the acquiring team to deal to handle. But that would still result in net savings compared to Kamara’s initial deal. Retirement would effectively work the same as a cut.
Anything can happen, especially as New Orleans has reduced its spending at the position and could look to reinvest in the room this offseason.
Sources and Fact-Checking
- Primary Sourcing: LouisianaSports.Net’s confirmation of contract logistics and team and CBA decipheration and details with sources with knowledge.
- CBA Analysis: Over The Cap (Article 13, sections 6 and 7)
- Kamara’s Contact Terms: Over The Cap (Alvin Kamara contract details)
