Alvin Kamara gave fans reason for concern when he sent his first message of the 2024 season, an early minicamp departure as the Saints star RB left early in search of a new contract.
In an offseason littered with contract holdouts, he made another statement when he arrived for training camp anyway and did the work just like any other year. In a Week 1 beatdown of the Carolina Panthers, his play sent the statement that the "too old" allegations were simply that.
"I’m not worried about anything that’s going on outside of the building, I’m just worried about us," Kamara said, "so we’re able to come in and execute and I think there were some plays that we still had out there that we wanted, but it looked good today.”
Kamara's 110 total yards (82 rushing) marked the 50th such game of his career dating back to his rookie season in 2017. That's the most in the NFL over that span, one more than now-Ravens RB Derrick Henry.
It was an accolade that the Saints flashed up on the video boards midway through the second half, which drew a cheer from the crowd that Kamara acknowledged with his trademark smile and a wave on the sideline. The 29-year-old running back doesn't track those type of accolades himself, so it's a nice thing to see when it happens.
But it doesn't change where Alvin stands, even though his contract is one of the few still up in the air after most other standouts got resolved, several after holdouts. The Saints will see one example in person during Week 2, with CeeDee Lamb ending his holdout from the Cowboys when the sides agreed on a 4 year, $136 million contract earlier this offseason.
Kamara made it clear from the start that he had no intention of incurring the $50K per day fines for holding out of camp. But after Week 1, he pointed to another reason that contract uncertainty will never keep him off the field.
Kamara is in the penultimate season of a 5-year, $75 million contract signed ahead of the 2020 season, but the lack of guarantees on the back end and scheduled cap hit of $29 million make it unlikely that contract is played out in its current form.
"I’m not worried about it." Kamara said, repeating his stance that he doesn't want to negotiate a contract during the season. "I’m here to play, like, I’m gonna play. I’m gonna perform. I don’t got no illness. I don’t got no … mystery injury, nothing. ... I’m gonna perform. I’m gonna be here with my teammates, coaches, and then like, just outside of all that, I think the most important thing, I love this city, right. I love the fans. I love these people, they support me, they’ve been supporting me for years now, right, so I mean, it would be kinda – for me, in my head, it would be kind of selfish to not go out there."
It's a reminder that Kamara, whether he intended to be or not, is the emotional center of his offense and possibly even the entire team, at least from a fan perspective. No one is more identifiable and awe-inspiring on the field for the Saints, and no one has more personality in the locker room. It doesn't hurt that Kamara's career overlapped the highly successful end of the Brees era, and his presence alone offers some confidence that a return to a similar feeling is possible.
"I love this city. I truly, truly, truly love Who Dat Nation, as cliche as it may sound, you know, everybody says that, but I’m for real," he continued. "Like, this is like family, home. When I speak, I mean it. Like, when I say I want to be here, I mean it, you know, so, you know, I think you always see the fans and they talking about well like, oh, you need to be here forever and this and that. I don’t want that to be the focus of what’s going on. I just want to come out here like it’s a Sunday. We’re out here performing, playing, you know, I get to interact with fans. I get to feel the love from them and we get to get a win, so it’s cool for the city, cool for us, cool for me.
If things go a certain way this season, the contract conversation will take care of itself. It seems new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak might help that case along in terms of how he prioritizes situations. When a Kamara touchdown run was called back due to penalty in the third quarter, Kubiak assured his runningback that he'd get into the end zone. The rest of that drive went:
- 1st & 20: Carr to Kamara (short right), +18
- 2nd & 2: Delay of game, -5
- 2nd & 7: Kamara run up the middle, +5
- 3rd & 2: Kamara run left, +2 (1st down)
- 1st & 10: Kamara run left, +1 (touchdown)
It's a scenario that in the past might've resulted in what teammates will jokingly refer to as "vultured touchdowns" by Taysom Hill, who is so adept in goal-line scenarios. Kamara even recalled a time when Taysom approached him on the sideline and apologized.
"I’ll be like bro, what are you apologizing to me for,” Kamara joked.
Kubiak, at least on Sunday, made sore no apologies were necessary.
"Klint went back to me, back to me, back to me. I’m like, dang, give this sh** to somebody else," Kamara joked. "But nah, I mean, obviously I’ve got the wind for it and then Klint’s got the belief and then the O-line and everybody just executed so I was able to get in there, but ... it’s dope when you’ve got a play-caller that trusts in you and believes in you and just got to go in there and make a play.”
The Saints will be hopeful that commitment to the ground game produces more results like they had Sunday. Next up it's the Cowboys on the road in Week 2. Catch all the action on WWL and Audacy.
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