Saints and Alvin Kamara avoid disaster with huge extension

Alvin Kamara followed in Dalvin Cook’s footsteps, signing a big extension on Saturday

Just moments after Cook’s extension with the Vikings was announced, Alvin Kamara opted to do the same. The Saints and Kamara had both voiced their displeasure with negotiations thus far, with New Orleans even reportedly willing to trade the Tennessee product, which was seemingly unthinkable even weeks ago.

Instead, the two sides allowed cooler heads to prevail, and Kamara has signed a five-year extension that will pay him handsomely. Kamara’s contract is as follows, per NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport: “The Saints and star RB Alvin Kamara have reached an agreement on a huge 5-year contract extension worth $75M in new money. He gets $77.133M overall and a $15M signing bonus. Kamara cashes in. Agent Damarius Bilbo of Klutch Sports did the deal.”

Alvin Kamara’s deal nets him guaranteed money as well

The Saints and Kamara have avoided major conflict heading into next season, and the offseason as well. Kamara receives $34. 3 million in guarantees and a hefty $15 million signing bonus. Kamara was rumored to be skipping offseason activities, though he insisted he was merely not on the practice field. Either way, the drama this situation brought the Saints just a week before the start of the season wasn’t ideal, and rather than let it leak into Week 1, they nixed it altogether.

While the running back position may be devalued league-wide, Kamara’s argument was always that he plays so many positions for the Saints, including lining up at wide receiver at times. His receiving prowess out of the backfield is huge for this New Orleans offense.

It looks like he won that argument on Saturday.