Tuesday would mark the four unexcused absence from practice for New Orleans Saints running back Alvin Kamara if the team were to have had practice and many are reporting that it's due to wanting a contract extension.

Kamara is entering the final year of his rookie deal where he's set to make just over $2M this coming season. There has been much speculation as to whether or not the Saints would retain AK or try and trade him as the value of running backs continues to decrease.

However, when Alvin is right he's downright a special type of running back. Many want to look towards last year and label him someone who can't be as dynamic as year one and two and while I don't think he can handle a full feature-back load he's still a special talent.

Many Saints fans are a little nervous about the status of Kamara heading into the season fearing he might extend his holdout like we've seen Melvin Gordon and Le'Veon Bell do in the past. This won't be the same as those simply because it's a new year and a new Collective Bargaining Agreement or CBA for short.

Yes, there's a new clause in the CBA that prevents a player from holding out for an extended period of time according to Saintswire. This new clause states that any player who misses more than five practices without an excuse would lose service time in the NFL and this wouldn't become a free agent until 2021 instead of at the end of the 2020 season. If that were to occur the player would be forced into signing a one-year restricted contract worth anywhere between $4-5M working sort of like the franchise tag.

Players can also be fined up to $40,000 PER DAY for unexcused absences and if the contract is worked out the team will normally not enforce those fines to keep the good faith between themselves and the player.

Therefore, as mentioned this will be Kamara's fourth day with an unexcused absence and if this holdout were to go further it would really hurt him in the long run.

 

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