NFL Rumors: Alvin Kamara Done With the Saints?

April 01, 2026 ,
New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara reacts during 2025 game.

The narrative that Travis Etienne's arrival in New Orleans automatically meant the end of Alvin Kamara's Saints tenure grew fast and ran far. 

Moore put a dent in it at the NFL Annual Meeting in Phoenix, saying directly that Kamara is part of the running back room and that the Saints see ways to use both backs in 2026. 

"We love Alvin. He means the world to all of us," Moore said. "We feel like there's ways that you can manipulate all those guys and put them in plenty of situations." 

But a report from Matthew Paras of The Times-Picayune and The Advocate that dropped alongside Moore's comments tells a bit of a different story. 

The Saints still want to address Kamara's contract, and both a pay cut and a roster cut remain on the table.

Alvin Kamara's Contract Situation and What the Saints Want

The Saints already restructured Kamara's deal earlier this offseason, dropping his cap hit from north of $18 million down to roughly $10.5 million using a salary cap mechanism that doesn't get used very often. 

He's due $11.5 million in the final year of his contract in 2026, with the deal voiding at the end of the league year. Even after that restructure, the Saints want to go further. 

Per Paras, the organization is letting the draft play out before making a final decision on which direction to go: pay cut, trade, or outright release. 

They told Kamara ahead of time that they were adding a running back regardless, and they followed through with the four-year, $52 million Etienne deal. 

The fact that they went that far into their cap to bring in a new lead back while simultaneously wanting to reduce Kamara's deal further is a fairly clear indication about where the organizational priorities are heading. 

Etienne, 27, is going to carry the workload. The question is simply whether Kamara still has a role alongside him.

What a Kamara-Etienne Backfield Could Look Like

The case for keeping Kamara is real, even at this stage of his career. 

He and Etienne are similar in style, both explosive, both capable in all three phases, but where Kamara still has the most to offer is as a pass-catching back in the flat, a role that doesn't require the burst or contact absorption that his age and injury history have started to affect. 

His 2025 season was marked by an MCL sprain that limited him to 11 games, and the numbers when he did play were the worst of his career across nearly every category. 

But a healthy Kamara in a limited role, spelling Etienne and taking snaps in passing situations, is a different proposition than asking him to be an every-down back. 

Moore made that point explicitly. "They're probably similar players," he said of Kamara and Etienne. "Both of them have the explosive, elusive ability to play in all three phases." 

Add in Audric Estime as the power back option and Devin Neal for depth, and the Saints' backfield is a genuine strength, but only if the Kamara contract situation gets resolved in a way that leaves both sides satisfied.

Photo Credit: Bob Donnan-Imagn Images

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