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Well, that escalated quickly. On Monday, ESPN reported that Alvin Kamara had missed three practice sessions in what may have been an in-house holdout related to his ongoing contract negotiations with the New Orleans Saints.
On Tuesday, NFL insider Josina Anderson reported that the Saints would consider trading Kamara; a report backed up by The Athletic’s Jeff Duncan, which said that the Saints would move Kamara if they can’t reach an agreement on a contract extension. Duncan added that the Saints would seek a first round draft pick in trade compensation.
So how far apart are they? Nick Underhill reported for NewOrleans.Football that proposals from the Saints and Kamara’s representatives are “about $2 million apart” in per-year salary. FOX 8 NOLA’s Sean Fazende reported that the latest offer from the Saints averaged slightly more than $12 million per year.
That would suggest Kamara’s seeking roughly $14 million per year, which is what Joe Mixon earned in his recent Cincinnati Bengals contract. But Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reported that the Saints view this new Mixon deal “as a starting point,” and that they’re comfortable paying him him north of $12 million per year — but that Kamara is pushing for the $16 million in earnings Christian McCaffrey receives from the Carolina Panthers.
Some clarity on the trade buzz came from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, who reported after a conversation with Kamara and his agent that any trade interest is coming from the other side of the bargaining table, not from them. Rapoport added that Kamara has not threatened a holdout or avoied the practice facility; previous NFL Network reports said that Kamara was dealing with a minor injury, causing him to miss practice.
The truth of it all probably falls somewhere in the middle. We’re speculating here, but after reviewing all of the different reports, it appears the Saints were willing to bump their offer up to $14 million (matching Mixon) from $12 million, which Kamara’s camp previously wanted. But that $2 million gap remained after Mixon raised the market, and now Kamara might be pressuring the Saints into approaching $16 million, which prompted the Saints to open up to trade possibilities. Maybe.
It’s a tough situation to navigate on its own, much less when you’re doing so with a bunch of tweets and media reports that are all, at best, secondhand information. The only certainty here is that the Saints aren’t that far apart in negotiating a new contract from what Kamara desires — it’s just a matter of which side blinks first, or if the Saints decide this close to the finish line that they actually want to blow it all up. We’ll see what happens next.
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