Alvin Kamara just kept showing up and putting it on the line for his team and it paid off

The Saints have lost a lot of things over the last few years.

Drew Brees and Sean Payton walking away ripped their heart out. Mike Thomas’ exit changed their tenacity. Cam Jordan getting older has led to a more mellow product. But they aren’t letting their spirit go. Not yet, anyway.

Alvin Kamara has been a lot of things for the Saints. He’s been their best player at times. Their identity in the post-Brees and Payton world. He’s been the guy who will call out the bullshit and celebrate the good things and always tell the truth, through his words, through his body language, through his play. He’s often been an avatar for the city. What you’re feeling, he’s often feeling -- except for that time when everyone thought he was sad about losing Mark Ingram. And that’s important.

The Saints obviously feel the same. They signed Alvin to a two-year extension on Tuesday worth $24.5 million. The deal comes with $22.3 million guaranteed, including a $15.5 million signing bonus. The contract puts him just a notch below the $12.5 million per season Saquon Barkley makes from the Eagles. In other words, Alvin got paid. Alvin said he never wanted to leave New Orleans and wants to retire here. This deal put him one step closer to reaching that goal, and he didn’t have to cut costs to make it happen.

Most teams don’t invest in older running backs. Alvin is 29, and that’s when teams start acting cautiously about their running backs. For a little bit, it looked like New Orleans might be walking away from Alvin. They signed other older players to extensions this offseason and let Kamara’s contract go untouched, despite it being an easy way to create cap space. It felt like they were going to let this deal expire and move on to something else after trying for a while to find a middle ground and not reaching one.

The two sides got close in February, and offers were exchanged. But then things slowed down over details, and other running backs like Barkley and Christian McCaffrey signed new deals, which changed the market and changed the conversations the Saints were having with their running back. Then Alvin left minicamp, and things slowed again. Then talks broke, and when they reopened again recently, momentum built and the deal got done.

All along, though, Kamara never wanted to leave. He showed up for training camp on Day 1, practiced hard and never let the contract become an issue. He showed up on Sundays and ran his hardest, through injuries on the offensive line, through broken ribs, through a hip pointer, through a fractured hand. Taking a day off was never something he considered. And even if he never signed this deal, Alvin’s plan was to keep playing no matter what. He didn’t care if he was hurt. He was going to play for his team, for his city, for himself.

If you scout beyond the box scores and the stat sheets, you still see it. Alvin is as quick as ever; he hits holes when they’re there, runs hard and makes plays. The offensive line isn’t what it’s supposed to be, so the stats haven’t been where they could be. But the Saints are getting healthy, and once they do, Kamara’s production should match what your eyes tell you. And now he’ll be part of the foundation going forward, no matter where this is heading.

But this move also tells you one more thing: the Saints aren’t preparing to blow things up. They believe this is a good team, and that what flashed during the first four weeks is more representative of their potential than what didn’t flash during the last three weeks. But wherever it goes from here, Kamara is going to be part of it. Even if they’re wrong about that and other things do happen to erode, they’re keeping their spirit alive.