Bleacher Report presents a ludicrous trade offer for Alvin Kamara.
Oh, Brother. Alex Kay of Bleacher Report offered a ludicrous deal between New Orleans Saints star running back Alvin Kamara and the Baltimore Ravens. It would be foolish for the Saints to accept this offer.
Baltimore gets Alvin Kamara.
New Orleans receives: 2024 seventh-round selection (No. 247 overall).
There is an evident difficulty with the value being swapped. Kamara may not be the same big-play danger he was earlier in his career, but the Saints hope he can turn things around with a new offense.
On top of another year working with Derek Carr, his tendency to check down shortly after the snap resulted in many targets coming Kamara’s way. A seventh-round selection is exorbitant compensation for No. 41.
But let us get to the second issue with Bleacher Report’s plan. Saints fans are more familiar with salary cap gymnastics than most, so see if you can identify the problem. Here’s what Kay said about the trade idea:
The 28-year-old back would be a great buy-low option for the Ravens, who could take advantage of the Saints’ desire to reduce payroll. The Saints expect to be $82.8 million over the limit next year, but they could save $11.8 million by moving Kamara.
While NFL teams can designate up to two post-June 1 releases for salary cap purposes each offseason, there is no regulation governing trades. The Saints would have had to keep Kamara on their books with a $18.7 million cap hit from free agency in March and the 2024 NFL draft in April before trading him in June to reap those cap benefits — which means the Ravens would have already spent the seventh-round pick that Bleacher Report believes Baltimore should trade to New Orleans, and the Saints would have had to get under the cap without touching Kamara’s contract.
If that’s an error or an oversight, it suggests they believe a 2025 seventh-round pick is adequate compensation for a five-time Pro Bowl running back, which is lubricious. This year, the Saints will need to figure out how to handle Kamara’s deal. They can’t have him count $18.7 million against the cap, whether that means another restructuring, reworking, a salary decrease, or something else unknown. But it doesn’t mean they should let another team take advantage of them by trading away a fan favorite playmaker for so little in exchange.
