Latest / AFR Saints / Alvin Kamara Reports to Saints OTAs: What It Means for His Contract and Future in New Orleans

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Alvin Kamara Reports to Saints OTAs: What It Means for His Contract and Future in New Orleans · AFR Saints

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  Speaker 1: dot org. Golf dot Breck dot org. So the Saints
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  Speaker 1: had OTAs with media availability and I'll be darn Alvin
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  Speaker 1: Kamara showed up and afterwards, Alvin Kamara told the reporters
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  Speaker 1: in attendance, when he made the decision to show up,
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  Speaker 1: like I.
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  Speaker 2: Said, I was literally just laying in the bed and
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  Speaker 2: I was like, I'll go tomorrow.
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  Speaker 3: I call my mom.
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  Speaker 2: I was talking to my daughters. She was like, what's
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  Speaker 2: you doing. I said, I think I'm gonna go to
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  Speaker 2: my other job. And he was like, you're gonna go
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  Speaker 2: to work work. I was like, yeah, work work. So
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  Speaker 2: now you're gonna play football and I'm like, yeah, football.
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  Speaker 2: So I just decided to come here.
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  Speaker 3: Man.
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  Speaker 1: Alvin Kamara was like, yeah, just laying in figured it,
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  Speaker 1: ou'd go. It's like Forrest Gump. I just felt like running.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, okay, maybe Ak's out here just trolling all
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  Speaker 1: of us. But if you're not familiar, the Saints several
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  Speaker 1: months ago restructured Alvin Kamara's contract. I could go into
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  Speaker 1: the deep dive nitty gritty of the whole thing. I
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  Speaker 1: would highly recommend if you're interested in that. Ross Jackson
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  Speaker 1: did an incredible job This saus it was eighty eight
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  Speaker 1: days ago, did an incredible job at Louisiana Sports DoD Net,
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  Speaker 1: explaining in great detail the rarely used CBA rule that
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  Speaker 1: the Saints used to restructure Alvin Kamara's deal. Effectively, they
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  Speaker 1: save eight million dollars and it eliminates any financial penalty
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  Speaker 1: if in fact Kamara is not on the team. Again,
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  Speaker 1: I'm I'm not going to deep dive into it. You
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  Speaker 1: can go read it. It's free at Louisiana sports DoD Net.
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  Speaker 1: But used to say the Saints effectively, they didn't kick
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  Speaker 1: Kamara out. But what they did was they opened the
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  Speaker 1: door and put their foot right on his backside. And
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  Speaker 1: if they want to push, they can. They'll have to,
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  Speaker 1: but they can. Is effectively what happened, so inquiry minds
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  Speaker 1: would look and say, well, why would you open the
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  Speaker 1: door and put your foot on his backside if you
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  Speaker 1: didn't intend to push. They've left themselves the option to
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  Speaker 1: do so if they want to. But Kamara, who usually
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  Speaker 1: does not show up for OTAs, showed up today. He
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  Speaker 1: said he's just laying in bed and felt like, CO mean,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm fully believing that. But Kellen
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  Speaker 1: Moore was asked, this is too muse if Alvin being
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  Speaker 1: present signifies the end of this saga and that he's
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  Speaker 1: going to be back.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know the business contractual side of this thing.
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  Speaker 3: I don't think necessarily anything's been done there, but uh,
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  Speaker 3: you know, it's good to see him. You know, obviously
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  Speaker 3: a lot of times this time of year, he's not
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  Speaker 3: always here and so, you know, similar to last year.
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  Speaker 3: But you know, it's good to see him and excited
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  Speaker 3: to kind of spend a little bit of time talking
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  Speaker 3: to him, just kind of seeing where he's all at.
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  Speaker 1: That is not exactly the voted confidence you might be
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  Speaker 1: hoping to hear if you want Alvin Kamara back. When
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  Speaker 1: the coaches asked, hey, does this mean he's back? I
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  Speaker 1: don't know the whole contractual side. He's usually not here.
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  Speaker 1: I'm glad he is not exactly what you're thinking you
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  Speaker 1: might are hoping you might hear now, for whatever it's worth.
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  Speaker 1: Alvin Kamara did talk about this, and he was asked
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  Speaker 1: if he felt disrespected by the Saints with the way
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  Speaker 1: they're handling this.
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  Speaker 2: I've been through a lot in my life, man, I've
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  Speaker 2: learned not to take things personally. Oh man, I'm blessed,
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  Speaker 2: Like it is what it is. You know, we we
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  Speaker 2: think we're in a we're in a business that's that's
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  Speaker 2: unique to a lot of spaces in the world. And
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  Speaker 2: you know, I just like I said, it's a business.
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  Speaker 2: So it's a business both ways, you know, on the
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  Speaker 2: team signed in on the players side, I always try
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  Speaker 2: to to like young dude, is anybody you know When
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  Speaker 2: they asked me about like how I navigate some of
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  Speaker 2: this stuff, It's like, man, you got you got to
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  Speaker 2: treat it like a business, you know what I'm saying.
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  Speaker 2: So you don't get kardoug Glass. So I let the
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  Speaker 2: cats in the Augar man, I'm just like I said,
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  Speaker 2: when you kind of just focus on you and what
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  Speaker 2: you got to do. On that guy you have and
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  Speaker 2: the rest of the things that they aren't any of
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  Speaker 2: the tit it.
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  Speaker 1: Happens how supposed a lot of background noise. They're a
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  Speaker 1: little hard to hear, but I think he got the
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  Speaker 1: gist of what Alvin Kamara was saying there, so he's
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  Speaker 1: got the right attitude about it. Alvin's always been a
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  Speaker 1: good teammate, He's been a great representative of the organization,
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  Speaker 1: and I think we all know that when his day comes,
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  Speaker 1: he'll be in the Saints Hall of Fame. He'll be
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  Speaker 1: in the Saints Ring of Honor. He holds the career
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  Speaker 1: touchdown marked rushing mark. He's one of the greatest Saints
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  Speaker 1: in the history of the organization. But it's true in
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  Speaker 1: this business that everybody's day comes to an end. In
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  Speaker 1: the Saints, with a total regime change and an aging,
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  Speaker 1: declining player, are very possibly looking to move on, and
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  Speaker 1: certainly signing Travis Achin to a fifty four million dollar
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  Speaker 1: contract this offseason is a pretty clear indicator of where
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  Speaker 1: they're affecting to go now. The other thing, though that
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  Speaker 1: is notable. In his media availability on Wednesday, Kellen Moore
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  Speaker 1: did speak specifically about the need to improve in the
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  Speaker 1: running game.
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  Speaker 3: We got to run the football better. We've spent a
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  Speaker 3: lot of time talking about it, but also trying to
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  Speaker 3: focus on ways that we can improve, whether it schematically, personnel,
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  Speaker 3: all that fun stuff. It's important aspect. You know, you
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  Speaker 3: gotta be able to control the line scrimmages. That's where
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  Speaker 3: so much of this football game is at the end
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  Speaker 3: of the day one. And you know, when you can
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  Speaker 3: run the football and have the threat of running the football,
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  Speaker 3: it allows so many other things to kind of come
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  Speaker 3: off of it. But you know, it's the ability to run,
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  Speaker 3: but also the threat to run. If you're not run
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  Speaker 3: the ball well enough, people can make it challenging for
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  Speaker 3: you on the back end.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, roll up your sleeves a little bit on that one, okay.
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  Speaker 1: And this is why you could see the Saints organizationally
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  Speaker 1: very clearly made a strong investment in that, specifically the
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  Speaker 1: need and willingness to improve in running the football. Last year,
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  Speaker 1: the New Orleans Saints were twenty eighth in the NFL
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  Speaker 1: in rushing offense. There are thirty two teams. I'm not
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  Speaker 1: good at math. That means there's only four teams that
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  Speaker 1: were worse at running the football than the New Orleans Saints, Cincinnati, Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: Arizona and the Raiders. And by the way, all those
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  Speaker 1: teams stunk too. If you don't run the football, you're
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  Speaker 1: not going to be a good NFL team. That's pretty
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  Speaker 1: much how it works. Oh, by the way, the team
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  Speaker 1: that was dead laughs and rushing was the Raiders who
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  Speaker 1: drafted Ashton genty Did they draft him pretty high? And
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  Speaker 1: U Saiy used a big high picker.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they did a top five pick.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. So yeah, don't use top five picks
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  Speaker 1: on running backs, idiots. You know, way more, way, way
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  Speaker 1: more pressing matters than your team. If I wanted, Saints
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  Speaker 1: are drafting a kid on Notre Dame? Were you talking
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  Speaker 1: about anyway? Point being, Saints are twenty eighth in rushing offense,
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  Speaker 1: they go sign Travis Hien, They go get a young, veteran,
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  Speaker 1: perennial thousand yard rusher to fortified strengthen that position. Then
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  Speaker 1: you look at the offensive line when check the PFF
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  Speaker 1: run grades for the guards on the same Aints team.
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  Speaker 1: Last year, Torris Selly Simpkins led all interior offensive linemen
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  Speaker 1: for the Saints and run blocking with a grade of
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  Speaker 1: fifty nine point six. That was seventy second in the
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  Speaker 1: NFL among guards. Dylan Raiden's Raden's rare dunes. His grade
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  Speaker 1: was a forty nine. He was one hundred and thirteenth.
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  Speaker 1: And the guy that's a former first round pick, Caesar Ruiz,
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  Speaker 1: was one hundred and twenty second in the NFL among
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  Speaker 1: guards in run blocking grade at a forty four point seven.
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  Speaker 1: Your guards stunk, your running backs old and hurt. Your
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  Speaker 1: coach is saying, we gotta be better at running the
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  Speaker 1: football because you were twenty eighth in the NFL at
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  Speaker 1: doing so better by the way than the team that
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  Speaker 1: used the top five pick on running back right, because
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  Speaker 1: you have to use top five pick on running back
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  Speaker 1: to you could run the football right anyway. You go
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  Speaker 1: at David Edwards, high priced free agent, You draft Jeremiah
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  Speaker 1: Right from Auburn to push Caesar Ruiz, You add Travis Aitchen.
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  Speaker 1: They have very clearly invested draft free agent, financial capital
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  Speaker 1: and being better at running the football. And my opinion,
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  Speaker 1: my opinion is Alvin Kamara very clearly sees that and
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  Speaker 1: cannot afford to let time slip away because he has
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  Speaker 1: to make this roster. I don't think the Saints are
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  Speaker 1: just kicking him out, but they have positioned themselves to
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  Speaker 1: be able to do so. If any of the other
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  Speaker 1: running backs after Travis Aitchien play well, if Kendre Miller
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  Speaker 1: coming off of injury, or Devin Neil also coming off injury,
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  Speaker 1: six round pick from a year ago, if any of
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  Speaker 1: the other backs perform well, now they have an open
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  Speaker 1: door to move on from Kamara. Kamara needs to earn
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  Speaker 1: his roster spot this year. It's not given to him,
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  Speaker 1: so yeah, I think that's why he's there today for
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  Speaker 1: Rotiers for the first time in three years.