This 49ers-Saints Trade Involving Kwon Alexander Could Be a Fair Swap Between the NFC Contenders

A report dropped earlier on Monday suggesting the San Francisco 49ers were prepared to part ways with a number of their key defensive players in order to solve some salary cap issues, and one of those notable names was Kwon Alexander.

The linebacker signed a four-year, $54 million contract with San Fran before the start of the 2019 season and will cost the 49ers a ton of money in 2021 and 2022 (over $13 million each year), so offloading his deal would help them out big time, despite the fact he's a key member of the defense.

Perhaps the New Orleans Saints can help out the defending NFC champions with a trade.

The Saints are expected to select a linebacker anyway with their No. 24 overall pick, so why not just give up some draft capital for the 25-year-old Alexander? That first-rounder as a clean swap could be fair, but New Orleans might drive a harder bargain since Alexander was injured last year and has a backloaded deal. Perhaps a second- and fourth-round pick could do the trick too, considering San Fran already has two first-rounders.

This would also FINALLY wake the Saints up to the fact they need to draft more LSU players.

Alexander has only a $4.57 million cap hit for next season, and the Saints have only $5.2 million in space remaining, but all they'd have to do is release Kiko Alonso to save $1.7 million, as well as Mario Edwards to free up another $2.4 million. They'd perhaps have to do some more restructuring to make room for the incoming draft class, but if they part ways with a first-rounder or a second and fourth, they'll be recouping money there as well.

As for the 49ers, they get some more draft capital to use on a loaded class and avoid further cap issues in 2021 and 2022.