Saints' Alvin Kamara makes retirement plans clear with latest contract news

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Alvin Kamara isn't going anywhere.

After an offseason of speculation about a release or even him being cut, Kamara has worked a new deal out to remain with the New Orleans Saints.

His agent Brad Cicala told NFL Network: "Alvin's goal, and the team's goal, was for him to remain with the Saints and retire a Saint."

It's not immediately clear how much longer Kamara plans to play, or even what his reworked contract looks like.

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All that this means is that Kamara won't be making his $11.5 million previously scheduled base salary for the season ahead. That was too much for the role that Kamara was going to fill, and for the level of player he is now.

The Saints signed Travis Etienne from the Jacksonville Jaguars as a free agent, and he's set to be the RB1.

Kamara can still be a useful player thanks to his ability to be used in a variety of ways, but as a change-of-pace back, that salary would've been too high. A restructured contract was always one of the possible outcomes, and that's where the Saints have ended up after working through the possibilities.

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The good news for Kamara as well is that he's done the two-back thing before. He played with Mark Ingram for a time, and with Latavius Murray for a time.

The split here might not look quite the same as those partnerships, but Kamara clearly didn't want to move on from New Orleans, and now he won't have to.