What will the Saints do if Alvin Kamara sits out games?

If Alvin Kamara sits out regular season games, what will the New Orleans Saints do?

New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara was not at practice on Monday, as his unexcused absence continued for a third day. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported his absence is believed to be related to his contract, as Kamara enters the final year of his rookie deal scheduled to make $2.133 million.

There’s no denying Kamara’s value to the Saints’ offense, with exactly 81 receptions and over 1,300 yards from scrimmage in all three of his seasons. What he did last year, playing on a bad knee among other injuries, was pretty remarkable and has fostered optimism he’ll have his best season yet this year. To get paid the way he’d like to be, he will need to have his best year.

Kamara showed up for training camp on time, as a nod to the revised CBA making a holdout untenable, and he quickly dismissed the idea his contract was an issue.

"It’ll happen when it happens,” Kamara said at the time. “It’s never been something … like I didn’t come in [to the NFL] thinking about like, ‘Ooh, I can’t wait ’til I get a contract.’ It’s like, ‘I’m playing, and when that comes, it’s gonna be well deserved and it’s gonna be perfect timing for it.’ It’s just not something that’s at the forefront of my day. It’s not something I wake up thinking about."

Kamara avoided early fines by reporting to training camp. If he decided to sit out into the regular season, he would forfeit game checks.

Separate from what Kamara’s market value is, or any implications a holdout carries for him, there is another prominent question.

What will the Saints do if Alvin Kamara sits out regular season games?

Since Drew Brees and Sean Payton arrived in 2006, the Saints’ offense has been among the best in the NFL. But it also been greater than the sum of its parts to a large degree, as Brees has risen the level of everyone with Payton’s design (with a nod to offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael) as a parallel driving force.

In the two games Kamara missed last year, Latavius Murray had 48 carries for 221 yards (4.6 yards per carry) and three touchdowns along with 14 catches for 86 yards and another score. He is not as dynamic a talent as Kamara, but Murray is an above average running back. The addition of the multi-faceted Ty Montgomery this offseason would help in the case of a Kamara absence. The multi-purpose ability of Taysom Hill may also become a more prominent part of the offense if Kamara sat out into the regular season.

Michael Thomas is firmly entrenched as the Saints’ No. 1 wide receiver, and they added Emmanuel Sanders in free agency as a viable No. 2. There’s some depth of passing game options, with tight ends Jared Cook and Josh Hill as well as the lingering potential of wide receiver Tre’Quan Smith.

Being without Kamara for any regular season games would not be ideal for the Saints, that’s obvious and clear. But they could survive without him if it came to that, and not miss too many beats.