Alvin Kamara’s Saints retirement plan features NASCAR move as $52m replacement reveals Tyler Shough bond
The New Orleans Saints made a massive free agency splash by pairing running back Travis Etienne Jr. with sophomore quarterback Tyler Shough.
Arriving from the Jacksonville Jaguars on a four-year deal worth $52 million, there is little doubt that Etienne Jr. is the new leader in the Saints’ backfield.
“Obviously this really calls into question the status of Alvin Kamara, who re-did his contract,’ NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport said after the signing.”
New Orleans used an obscure clause allowing teams to prorate part of a current-year salary when the next year’s payout is a drop of 50 percent or more to convert $10.15 million of Kamara’s base salary into an unguaranteed signing bonus.
That opened the door for the Etienne Jr. signing, and potentially Kamara being cut.
The five-time Pro Bowler turns 31 in July and holds Saints franchise records for rushing attempts, yards and touchdowns.
He missed the final weeks of the 2025 season, during which there were rumors he could be traded to a contending team.
“I don’t know where that — we talked about and we were looking at each other like the little Spider-Man meme, like, ‘Did you say something? Did I say something?’ I don’t know where that came from,” he said at the time.
Alvin Kamara would rather retire than join another team
Kamara already has a side gig as Growth and Engagement Advisor for NASCAR and insisted he would rather retire than leave New Orleans.
“I’ve been vocal that I don’t want to go anywhere, and I’ve said it countless times, y’all know that, I think everybody knows that, the fan base knows that,” he added.
“At the end of the day, it’s business. I don’t go upstairs, I don’t have an office upstairs, I’ve got an office in Charlotte at NASCAR, but I don’t have an office upstairs. So I don’t really sit in those meetings, I don’t know what happens up there. I’ve just got to keep my head down.
“If I was a GM, I guess I would go to the player and be like, ‘Hey, we’re trading you, just so you know.
“So if Mickey comes downstairs and says that, I’m going to go drink a piña colada somewhere.”
He was accused of holding the Saints to ransom, but quickly shut down that talk.
“I saw a lot of people looking at that and saying, like, I was holding the Saints hostage by saying that if they traded me, I would retire,” Kamara said. “Which is not at all what I was saying. What I was saying was the same thing I’ve said my whole career. I want to be in New Orleans, right? Period. In the simplest of forms. I want to be in New Orleans.
“If I were to have to play football somewhere else, then I don’t want to play football, that’s all I was saying. It’s the trade deadline, so things get read into a little bit more. It’s like ‘Well, they went to Alvin and asked him if he wanted to be traded. And he told Mickey Loomis that if they trade him…’ I wasn’t holding anybody hostage.
“At the end of the day, that entity, that team, they swing the gavel. So, I’m never going to go up there and be like if you trade me, I’m going to go home.”
An exit could come as soon as June, when the Saints are free to trade of cut Kamara without undoing their contract restructure.
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“I think it’s fair to say some have wondered whether or not he would walk away from the game at its height and end up sipping a Mai Tai on the beach, I believe that’s the way he described it,” said Rapoport after the Etienne Jr. signing.
The Saints also added former Buffalo Bills guard David Edwards on a four-year, $61 million in a bid to bolster the ground game and protect Shough after an encouraging rookie season.
Kamara will not have to worry about his future after being notoriously frugal with his $67 million career earnings.
He appeared on Uninterrupted’s Kneading Dough, which is hosted by former Cleveland Browns wideout Andrew Hawkins, and revealed how seeing his family struggle with money shaped his beliefs from an early age.
He bought a box of wings with his rookie signing bonus and put the rest into savings and investment accounts.
“I’m like, ‘Okay, this is more than I’ve ever had,” he explained. “My mom ain’t never had this much.
“It would be a shame if I got this and lost it. I’m gonna keep doing the same thing I’ve been doing, [purchasing] what I need and that’s it.
“I’m not about to go over the top, I’m not gonna live beyond my means.”
Kamara only works with brands he believes in and managed to secure his very own flavor of Airheads after building a throne out of boxes of the candy in his locker room.
As for Etienne, he grew up in New Orleans and revealed he wants to bring the Vince Lombardi Trophy to the city.
“Tyler, he’s a great person, talking with him and being with him last night, you can sense the hunger, you can sense that he wants it for the city as well,” he said.
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