Since the November trade deadline, Alvin Kamara’s name has surfaced repeatedly in speculation that the New Orleans Saints could move on from the 30-year-old running back.
Compounding the uncertainty, Kamara has not played or practiced since Week 12 while dealing with knee and ankle injuries.
Looking ahead to next season, the Saints are also high on rookie Devin Neal, though he is currently sidelined with a hamstring injury and has been placed on injured reserve. That has only fueled questions about whether New Orleans will revisit the possibility of trading Kamara this offseason.
Alvin Kamara suggests he doesn’t want to play for anyone else
At the trade deadline, Kamara made his stance clear on the idea of being dealt, saying he would go drink a “piña colada somewhere” if traded—suggesting he would rather retire than play for another team. He expanded on those comments during an appearance this week on “The Set with Terron Armstead.”
"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."
From his perspective, Kamara said he wasn’t trying to hold the organization hostage — he simply wants to remain in New Orleans.