The annual NFL trade deadline is just days away (it’ll pass at 3 p.m. CT on Tuesday, Nov. 1, so mark your calendars), so clout-hungry social media account managers are driving up speculation on struggling teams like the New Orleans Saints. But they’re approaching it from the same perspective as pro football executives from around the league, who see a 2-5 squad in New Orleans whose record doesn’t match the talent on their roster. Could this be what drives the Saints into a fire sale?
Probably not, given the finances involved and how difficult it would be for the Saints to offload some of their star players. Even if the Saints were motivated into dealing household names like Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas, they’ve written themselves into a corner while working around the salary cap, and it’s hard to imagine another team could present a strong enough offer to make it worth their while. They’d be paying for the player and for the salary cap penalties New Orleans would absorb in moving on.
Still, it isn’t stopping people from asking questions. Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer spoke with one NFL general manager who speculated that one Super Bowl contender could get the Saints to at least consider an offer involving a valuable 2023 draft pick. Here’s what Breer reported from his conversation with someone not involved in this hypothetical decision:
“There have been conflicting reports on Alvin Kamara, but one GM told me he thought the Saints would consider moving him to the Eagles if Philadelphia gives them back the first-rounder they traded in April.”
The Eagles would be insane to give the Saints what’s projected to be a top-five draft selection for a running back in his late 20’s who is facing a six-game suspension later this year or early next season, but New Orleans would be just as out of pocket to agree to such a deal. Moving Kamara would accelerate outrageous salary cap payments onto their books this year (which they have no way of wriggling out of) and it would be a death-knell for Dennis Allen’s regime. Kamara is a foundational player you build around, not someone you ship off to a rival team. Pro Football Talks’ Mike Florio already ruled out the Eagles as a team interested in trading for Kamara, so this story doesn’t have legs, even if people won’t stop talking about it, to Kamara’s own amusement.
That’s not to say the Saints won’t make a trade before the deadline. Breer suggested “second-tier types such as Nick Vannett and Marquez Callaway” as players interested teams are calling about, and the Saints could see some benefits in moving on from them. Vannett has a disproportionately high salary cap hit in 2023 and will likely be cut after the season anyway. Callaway will be a restricted free agent, and if the Saints see Michael Thomas or Jarvis Landry (or, hopefully, both of them) returning soon his role in the offense evaporates. Neither player would return trade compensation greater than late-round picks in the draft a year or two from now, but it’s possible the Saints accept that anyway. We’ll just have to wait and see.