Aug. 10: Unsurprisingly, the relationship between Thomas and the team is not in a good place, as Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reports (video link). Rapoport adds that a trade could be an option at some point, but given Thomas’ health issues, such a deal wouldn’t be consummated for a while. The two-time First Team All-Pro is likely to start the season on the PUP list, so he could not be dealt until right around the trade deadline.
And, if the Saints were to trade him, the team would be saddled with an $8MM dead money hit this year and a $22MM dead money hit in 2022. For a team with well-documented cap issues already, that would be a tough pill to swallow, especially since New Orleans would be selling low.
Aug. 7: Saints star Michael Thomas ignored check-in calls from team coaches and trainers throughout the offseason, according to sources who spoke with Jeff Duncan of Nola.com. Thomas ignored the club’s repeated pleas to have surgery on his injured ankle. Instead, he held off until June, which means that he’ll be sidelined to start the season.
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Thomas got a second opinion on his injury and was told that he could avoid going under the knife. The Saints supported his decision but also asked for regular updates. Thomas then went three months without talking to team officials.
The Saints have since added veteran Chris Hogan and moved Ty Montgomery back to wide receiver. Those moves may help with depth, but neither player can realistically replicate Thomas’ production.
“It’s disappointing,” head coach Sean Payton said recently. “We would have liked (the surgery) to have happened earlier rather than later. And quite honestly, it should have.”
In 2019, Thomas finished with a single-season-record of 149 receptions to go along 1,725 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. Last year was a different story. Between his one-game suspension and hamstring trouble, Thomas finished out with just 40 catches for 438 yards in seven games. On the plus side, he went on to notch five grabs for 73 yards and one score in the Saints’ playoff win over the Bears.
I’m not sure why the relationship soured after that fantastic year, but boy did it!
It is shocking how quickly that relationship has soured. For whatever reason, it feels like he wants out of New Orleans and has been starting to pull some plays from that playbook.
Probably bc he knows there’s garbage at QB there now and no way he comes close to duplicating that 2019 season.
Winston threw for over 5,000 yards. Winston and Thomas could be electric together.
Couldn’t agree with you more. Winston may be a turnover machine but he’s potentially prolific at yardage accumulation and red zone scoring. Payton’s WC Hybrid used to be amongst the most if not the most efficient downfield scheme in the league. Payton consistently utilized the TE(and pedestrian or replacement level TE’s at that) to hold the deep S in the seam off of play action and short pass(dig routes)to open the deep ball. DB’s used to be amongst the best in the business at it before Father Time claimed another victim(undefeated). I guess I’m underscoring your point that this isn’t a lack of foreseeable production issue. This is something else. I personally do not believe he’s well liked and has become a malcontent.
When your job is completely depended on your physical health I’d say rift or no rift you need to let your employer know what’s going on. Even if rehab is going well which it obviously didn’t the further you get into rehab the better timetable you have for return that’s something teams need to know. If you’re missing a game or two then perhaps they get by with an in house option but if it’s an extended absence perhaps they would look to acquire someone to help fill that void. This isn’t baseball but the Yankees voided a year or Jacoby Elsburys contract for having a medical procedure outside of the teams recommendations/consent because they pay you for what you can do physically. When you do something they feel puts that in jeopardy they have every right to at the very least be very upset. A second opinion did suggest rehab so I don’t fault the original decision but the team would have almost surely have pushed for surgery again if they’d gotten an update rehab wasn’t progressing as they’d hoped. I’m interested to hear what Thomas has to say on the subject but I don’t know what he could say to excuse his lack of communication when he agreed to regular updates
It’s what happens when gratitude becomes expectation.
Just WR things
Head case will be cut as soon as the dead money isn’t debilitating which is 2023, feels like an eternity if you’re a Saints fan. Went from arguably best receiver in the league to head case in one offseason.
Calm down
No guaranteed $ after 2021 so sooner…
Your might want to check that again. Cutting him after this season costs the 22.7mil and cutting him after 2022 still costs the 13.7mil. Not sure how you get no guaranteed money left
Thomas sounds like a real high character, stand-up guy.
This guy is a tool
And the players want guaranteed contracts. This won’t help their cause any.
Not a Saints fan but I don’t see this as such of a big deal. He wanted preseason and training camp off. Yes it would had been better for the QBs to get more practice with him but it is not the end of the world. If he comes back and has another great season all will be forgiven.
…he’s going to miss the start of the season. Then who knows how many weeks until he’s fully up to speed.
For a team that just lost its HOF QB to retirement, I’d say that a pretty “big deal”
They’re saying end of October/beginning of November for his return time frame….that’s a bit longer than the preseason
I misread it. I thought he would not miss any season games.
If Thomas’ overall contribution was going to be similar this year to what he gave last year, the Saints won’t miss him much. Even with the Sanders-less wide receiving corps being worse than it was prior. They SHOULD miss his production, but Thomas was a headcase who got suspended by the team before giving some pretty generic statistics in his limited action.
New Orleans needed a wideout even in the scenario that Thomas came back ready to go, so in that respect I can see why you’d say it doesn’t change much-they’re still crappy at that position. If Thomas were guaranteed to come back looking like his old self, I’d say that this is 10/10 a big deal for the offensive production. Without that guarantee, which is how I currently see it, I’d say it’s more like 5 or 6.
And when was his last great season? Seems like it’s been a couple years
Taysom Hill – Jameis Winston – Ian Book – Trevor Siemian
None of these guys are Drew Brees, and Thomas knows this. His numbers will go down, his value might slip and he loses $$$. He might be pushing a trade to specific team with a better QB, or just testing the waters to move later.
The only issue with this thought pattern is that Michael Thomas was an issue all of last year, when Drew Brees was the QB. To be honest, Mr. Thomas was an issue on a team that played in the Division round of the playoffs.
And Thomas’ personality was at least half the trouble. The other half was injury, but due to both his mental state and his physical state he was essentially a non-contributor the entire season, leaving Emmanuel Sanders the only real option outside all year. Sanders wasn’t signed to do that, and between his lack of an offseason and Drew Brees’ diminished arm, Thomas really was being counted on to contribute a lot. That’s why he was paid what he was. Instead, he chose to take his already questionable history of personal decision making and up it even more. I’m not sure that the physical injury was all physical, given what happened.
That might explain this year. But then why was Thomas a diva last year?
Oh, I agree that he was a diva last year. But, as with all divas, people tend to get tired of their antics when their play isn’t worth the antics. Last year, people were perfectly content to turn a blind eye to Thomas’ Instagram feuds (which admittedly were more just plain unstable than diva behavior) or his on-field boasting. He’s always been a bit unhinged, but it all started to come out two years ago (especially on social media) and became a sore point last year because of his terrible play (and his bad tempered craziness that contributed to that).
Funny how Michael Thomas signed a guaranteed contract of $96 million from which he cannot effectively be fired until 2024 (at which point it would still cost the Saints $13,800,000 to cut Thomas. As far as Thomas is concerned, the less downs of football he plays between 2020 and 2024, the better. He will still bank $90 million!
I don’t have a problem with players taking the time to get 2nd or 3rd medical opinions regarding injuries but blowing management off, when they try to ask what is going on, is just stupid.
Yeah, I though last year after his poor performance upon returning from his suspension that Thomas wouldn’t be a Saint much longer, despite his contract. I am not pleased to say that this is kind of the direction I thought his relationship with the team would progress. I may be wrong of course, but I do think that his relationship with the team and possibly his mental state are worse than current appearances suggest. Hope I am wrong.
Football is a violent sport so anytime a player starts exhibiting bizarre behavior you have to consider that an undiagnosed concussion might be affecting their mental state.
Maybe, but it’s also a star maker. People outside of football have gone nuts when the consequences of being “everyday” don’t apply to them. We don’t have any way of knowing right now, but what’s for certain is that Thomas has been making some bizarre decisions.
Went bad once Dinger got paid
He played injured when they needed him last year after getting hurt in garbage time week 1z. All because of it being DBrees last season (allegedly) and the team needing MT out there. Did the Saints create this paradox or is MThomas being a diva? Trade him to Houston…..
If I were to not answer calls from my employer for months at a time, I’d eventually get hollered at. True story.
This reminds me of the Kawhi situation his last year in San Antonio