Alvin Kamara missed his 4th Saints practice. What are the chances his deal gets done?

It appears New Orleans Saints officials may have to do some open-field tackling to get Alvin Kamara back into training camp.

Disenchanted with his current contract situation, the gifted dual threat running back of the New Orleans Saints apparently has become conspicuously absent on the practice field with his team’s season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers fast approaching inside the empty Mercedes-Benz Superdome (Sept. 13, 3:25 p.m., Fox).

Monday marked Kamara’s third consecutive unexcused absence from practice.

Neither side has confirmed Kamara’s absence is tied to his contract situation, though it doesn’t take a member of Mensa International to decipher the tea leaves.

Consider:

▪ Kamara is scheduled to make a base salary of $2.133 million in this, the fourth and final year of his rookie contract.

▪ He has outplayed his current deal and is grossly underpaid considering the current annual deals for NFL running backs Christian McCaffrey ($16 million per season), Ezekiel Elliott ($15 million), Le’Veon Bell ($13.1 million), David Johnson ($13 million) and Derrick Henry ($12.5 million), among others. Cincinnati Bengals running back Joe Mixon added salt to the wound Tuesday, signing a four-year contract extension worth $48 million.

▪ According to Spotrac, Kamara’s annual estimated market value is calculated to be $14.9 million or just under $60 million over four years.

▪ Kamara isn’t even the highest paid running back on the Saints roster. Backup Latavius Murray counts $4.050 million against the salary cap, including a base salary of $2.8 million and $1.25 million in bonuses.

Here’s the rub: The Saints don’t have the necessary salary cap room this year (or next) to give Kamara his due and other deserving players like him, unless General Manager Mickey Loomis can somehow restructure deals with one or two well-heeled veterans like quarterback Drew Brees, defensive end Cam Jordan, wide receiver Michael Thomas or even Swiss Army knife Taysom Hill.

Maybe, anxious Saints fans can raise the necessary dollars for Kamara through GoFundMe.

I’m fairly certain Kamara and his agent, Damarius Bilbo, and team officials will work out their contractual differences, much like Thomas did a year ago when he staged a brief holdout prior to training camp before signing a blockbuster five-year, $96.25 million deal that featured $61 million in new guaranteed money.

These things have a way of working themselves out.

The bottom line is Kamara wants to be in New Orleans and the Saints want him in New Orleans. More importantly, a healthy, happy and productive Kamara makes the Saints a tough out in the NFC and a legitimate threat to win Super Bowl LV.

In hindsight, maybe Kamara would have been better off stealing a page from Thomas’ playbook and not reporting to training camp on Day One. You know, tackle the issue head on and get it out of the way.

Who’s to say.

I suspect that if COVID-19 had not washed ashore six months ago and wreaked havoc with everything under the sun, we might not be having this pre-Labor Day discussion.

This matter would have been resolved long before now.

This story was originally published September 1, 2020 at 12:44 PM.