Alvin Kamara has been a popular trade candidate throughout the offseason, and the running back only poured gas on the proverbial fire when he listed his house for sale. Even if he remains with the Saints in 2024, it’s safe to say this will be his last season on his current deal. While he’s technically under contract for 2025, the running back carries a $29.08 million cap hit next year and doesn’t have any guaranteed money remaining after this season. If the Saints can’t restructure or extend his contract, they will cut him next year, and Kamara doesn’t want that.
Recently, Alvin Kamara sat down with members of the Saints media to discuss his current contract and his house. While Saints fans might find the house talk reassuring, the running back sounded less optimistic about his contract status.
Here's #Saints RB Alvin Kamara talking about his contract situation and about selling his house in the suburbs of New Orleans. pic.twitter.com/08Cv7WP2e2
— Fletcher Mackel (@FletcherWDSU) September 2, 2024
Alvin Kamara Discusses House Sale, Contract Status
Let’s start with the bad news. The clip above begins with Kamara addressing his contract status by effectively punting on the question. Saying that it’s “too late” to discuss his contract, the five-time Pro Bowler seems to be at peace with entering 2024 in what is effectively the final year of his deal.
“It’s too late for contract talk…if it gets done, cool. If it don’t, cool. I’m kinda at the point like I’m not even talking about it until after the season.”
In this case, Kamara’s silence spoke volumes. While it sounds like he’ll accept a perfect deal, he and his representation won’t go out of their way to work out a long-term deal. New Orleans always finds a way to clear cap space with contract restructures, so perhaps they’ll find a way to keep Kamara in 2025. However, the team is projected to be nearly $96 million over the salary cap, and they’ll need to make some tough decisions, especially if they have a new head coach and/or quarterback at this point next year. While the Alvin Kamara contract situation seems dire, the house issue doesn’t appear to be nearly as big of a deal.
The House
You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to deduce that players tend to sell their house if they plan on leaving their current team. Perhaps the most popular example is when then-Patriots quarterback Tom Brady listed his house for sale in 2019 and joined the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just a few months later. Fortunately for the Saints, history doesn’t seem to be repeating itself here, as Alvin Kamara assured reporters that his house sale is nothing more than a real estate move.
“I would like to call myself a serial entrepreneur. I dabble in many things, real estate being one of them…Matt Bowers told me I could live with him. So I figure, why spend my own money when I can spend Matt’s money? I’ve got other properties around the city, so I mean if I sell today I’ve got somewhere to be so I’m good.”
For those who can’t watch the video, Alvin Kamara notably changed his tone when discussing his house. Cracking jokes left and right, the running back seemed to enjoy discussing his real estate venture and confirmed he has other places to live if he sells his current house. This might be Kamara’s last season with the Saints, but if he does leave, his house won’t have anything to do with it.
