Alvin Kamara

Ian Rapoport has reported that Alvin Kamara’s absence from the Thursday Saints minicamp is contract related. This is worth monitoring as the Saints have a decent history of working out contracts to keep their roster together and an intentional move like this from Kamara’s camp could set up for a parting of ways.

Whether the Saints entertain Kamara’s demands remains to be seen. It is worth noting that the 49er’s Christian McCaffrey did just a contract extension keeping him as the top paid running back in the league. From a peer to peer standpoint, Alvin Kamara may see this as a signal and opportunity to push the running back market both for himself and others. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen. 

Alvin Kamara was the RB-11 in fantasy football last year and is currently going as the RB-17 in round 6 on UnderDog. The immediate contingent buzz will circle around teammate Kendre Miller who is being drafted as RB-44 in round 12. Overall, it is worth investing in both Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller in both Dynasty and Best Ball formats with the possibility of having both players score points in your lineups as top-12 running backs playing for different teams in 2024.

The Saints have continually swiped the credit card with a buy now and pay later mentality regarding the NFL salary cap. In a move that would make Dave Ramsey proud, the Saints most recently committed to the Ramen noodle diet by restructuring Derek Carr’s contract.

Where there is inflexibility with roster building, the Saints have plenty of agency in who they can hire for their coaching staff; enter Klint Kubiak.

Derek Carr was 37^th in red zone accuracy in 2023. Klint Kubiak will deploy more motion as well as slither formations in the red zone to help manufacture passing game opportunity for running backs which is a perfect fit for Alvin Kamara. Sending skill position players in motion will also give more deceptive looks to free up alpha wide receiver Chris Olave. A fun sprinkle to all this that Kubiak did not have in San Francisco is being able to be creative with Swiss army knife Taysom Hill.

Expect more creativity for the New Orleans Saints going forward. Buy Saints skill position players in 2024.

Alvin Kamara will miss the first three games of the New Orleans Saints season. The suspension comes in at less than we thought, with the expected outcome to be 4-6 games lost. Jamaal Williams and Kendre Miller will split the backfield early in the season.

Kamara led all running backs in % of snaps played across is 15 contests, a feat the Saints do not seem intent on repeating. Jamaal Williams was brought in on a 3-year, $12M deal to spell Kamara between-the-tackles and on the goalline. New Orleans then drafted Kendre Miller in the 3rd Round, with designs of him replacing Alvin Kamara in the long run.

If the GM who rosters Kendre Miller in Dynasty lowers the price at all due to the truncated suspension, now is the time to buy. The Saints can save over $11M in cap space by moving on from Kamara next summer.