Alvin Kamara needs a new contract and keeps playing through injuries and putting up numbers. Why? 'I just got to'

Imagine being in this position.

You're 29 in a league that thinks 30-year-olds at your position are geriatric; you're essentially in the last year of your contract, and negotiations on a new deal are going nowhere. You're getting 22.8 touches per game, the highest total of your career, and lead the league with 114. And now you're playing behind an offensive line that is struggling to open holes, and the space that was there early in the season has evaporated a bit.

On top of that, it's five games into the season, and you have broken ribs, a hip pointer, and now a hand injury suffered Monday night against the Chiefs.

What would you do? Some people might think about themselves, shut down, get healthy, and make sure people are seeing you at 100% whenever you step on the field and nothing else.

If you're Alvin Kamara, you just keep playing and don't worry about that stuff. You keep running, you keep catching, you keep throwing yourself into the path of blitzers, and do whatever you have to do.

Why, though?

"I just got a little extra motivation, I think," Alvin told me recently. "I just got to, my family, man. I just got a little extra motivation. Mom, family, all that."

So, if you're Alvin Kamara, you keep showing up, try to win, try to put up the best numbers you can and keep playing because that's what you do. You play for your family, you play for your teammates and you keep doing what you do with the belief that if you do the right things, fight through it and put up numbers, things will work out in the end.

"He gets all my respect," Tyrann Mathieu said.

Kamara is off to a great start this season. He's rushed for 388 yards, five touchdowns and has caught 23 passes for 214 yards with another score. He's on pace for 2,046 yards from scrimmage, which would blow away his previous high of 1,688, set back in 2020. Even with the injuries and ailments and banged-up offensive line, he looks great every time he steps on the field.

But can he make it 17 games at this rate? Klint Kubiak was recently asked about Kamara's usage and gave a double-sided answer. He started out by saying that he has no plans of slowing down the running back's usage and that he wants to get his best player the ball as much as possible, but then added that he was joking a bit and that they need to be smart about it.

"But in close games, he doesn't want to come out of the game, and we don't want to take him out of the game," Kubiak said. "So, that's just the kind of player that he is, that's why he is where he's at."

And that's a good thing for the Saints. Jamaal Williams hasn't quite stepped up yet, Taysom Hill is hurt, Jordan Mims hasn't found his way on the field, and Kendre Miller is still working his way back, and from the sounds of it, there are no grand plans to use the second-year player in a significant role any time soon.

The situation at running back could go sour quickly if the lead guy ever misses a game, but it's never gotten close to that this season. When AK broke his rib and hurt his hip against Philadelphia, he never once considered not playing. Was it an Atlanta thing? Going against the hometown team? Any extra motivation there? Nope. "We could have been playing the Bad News Bears," he said.

So, this is just who he is, and now he's on a mission. You have to assume that Alvin wants to prove something this year, and he has an opportunity to do that by playing in a system that's catered to his skills. He knows that 3.7 and 4 and 3.9 yards per carry the past three years wasn't because of him. And he must know that if he stays on the field and keeps playing that he can show that to everyone, even if it means playing hurt.

He's refusing to let anything stop him.

"I just got to," Kamara said. "I played a mental game. For me, and I always tell people, this shit is 90% mental, 10% physical. So, if you can get past that little bit of physical, put your mind somewhere else, that's what it is. And I just feel like, for me, I just feel like I got to go out there. More this season than anything."

So, now we'll see how that goes this week. AK had his hand wrapped out at Wednesday's practice and got listed as not participating, but he was there, with a jersey on, showing up yet again because that's what he does. The best guess is that he'll play if he can hold the ball. He's shown us that time and time again.

The contract situation doesn't sound any closer to being resolved, either. Kamara recently told the team that he doesn't want to talk about money during the season, which means that, unless something changes, this will be resolved one way or another during the offseason.

In the meantime, no matter what happens, Alvin is just going to keep trying to find ways to show up. Keep playing well and the rest will take care of itself.