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The New Orleans Saints made a move near the NFL trade deadline by picking up San Francisco 49ers linebacker Kwon Alexander, and now we know what they gave up to acquire him: a conditional fifth-round draft pick and one of their own linebackers, Kiko Alonso.
Alonso suffered an ACL tear back in January’s playoffs loss to the Minnesota Vikings, which kept him sidelined throughout training camp on the physically unable to perform (PUP) list. He was recently activated from the PUP list and returned to practice, though he wasn’t yet cleared to suit up for a game.
Alexander has been dealing with an injury, too. He was diagnosed with a high-ankle sprain earlier this season and missed the last three games while recovering from it, though he was limited in 49ers practice last week. He’s a long shot to play in Week 9’s Sunday night matchup against his old Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad (due as much to that injury as COVID-19 testing restrictions), but expect him to push for a starting gig later this year.
In the end, the Saints swapped a selection on the final day of a future draft for a starting-quality linebacker, giving up a backup who hadn’t taken a snap for them yet in 2020. While the Saints are due to pay Alexander about $3 million in salary cap accounting for the rest of the year, the $900,000 or so in savings they’ve created by moving Alonso mean the final tally for the move is only around $2 million and some change. That’s a price worth paying for a Pro Bowl quality player.
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