Michael Thomas has reworked his contract, setting up a significant decision for the Saints heading into the 2023 league year. According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the wide receiver and the Saints agreed to a restructured deal that provides the organization with some additional flexibility to move off the contract this upcoming offseason.
Specifically, Thomas reduced his 2023 base salary from $15.5MM to $1.165MM. In exchange, the wideout now has a $31.755MM 2024 roster bonus that’s due on the third day of the 2023 league year (March 17, 2023). For participating, the Saints gave Thomas a $900K signing bonus.
As Yates explains, this reworking assures that the Saints’ decision on the receiver’s future “will be done expediently.” If that $32MM roster bonus becomes guaranteed, the front office would be left with a prohibitive amount of dead cap. If the team decides to cut the receiver (which would likely be designated as a post-June 1 cut), the team would have an extra $14MM in cap flexibility thanks to today’s maneuverings. The organization would still be left with more than $25MM in dead cap, but those extra savings would still be significant for a team that’s projected to be over the cap.
If Thomas is cut, he’d immediately become a free agent. Considering the March 17 deadline, this would allow the wideout to negotiate with teams before standard free agent receivers. The Saints could realistically keep Thomas and still realize today’s savings, but such a route would set the team up for a hefty financial commitment during the 2024 campaign.
In simpler terms, it’s the general consensus that today’s contract restructuring will ultimately lead to the Saints parting ways with the wide receiver this offseason. Thomas hasn’t been productive and/or healthy in three seasons, so it’s unlikely that the Saints would make a financial commitment for a fourth questionable season, much less a fifth season. Plus, thanks to the development of Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed, the team isn’t as reliant on Thomas’s upside, especially with a roster that seems to be focused towards the future.
The receiver has a prolific 2019 campaign that saw him collect 149 receptions for 1,725 receiving yards, leading to Offensive Player of the Years honors. Since then, Thomas has been limited to 10 games across three seasons, contributing only 56 receptions for 609 yards. Entering what would be his age-30 season, Thomas can’t expect a hefty pay day when he inevitably reaches free agency, but there should still be plenty of contenders lining up for his services.
This moves him from one foot out the door to nine toes out the door.
Im not a cap expert or anything and know far less than Thomas’s agent, but why would Thomas agree to what is essentially a 14 million loss just to negotiate with other teams? Are other teams going to pay him 15 million a year given his injury history? He’s probably not getting a multi-year deal given said injury history but maybe a desperate team like the Cowboys/Giants/Bears give him a 1/15-20 with a similar team option but this is a huge bet on himself this upcoming year
He’s still getting over $10 million from them each of the next two years, I believe. Dead cap hits. I think this is just a prelude to cutting him with a post-June 1 designation, which would spread out his dead cap hit instead of making it huge next year. I *think* that’s the gist of it.
How much of that 15MM was guaranteed? If they cut him and ate the dead cap, would he have received anything? Is he taking 900k knowing it’s better than nothing?
Honest questions. I don’t know how football contracts work. I’m a baseball guy. In that sport you can assault three women and get kicked off the team, but once your suspension is served and your fines are paid, your former team has to pay the remaining 22M for you to kick your feet up and tweet about the situation. Football players seem to have significantly less salary security.
They do have much less guaranteed money, but to clarify: dead money is salary cap (and actual) money going to players no longer on the team, or at least contracts no longer on the team. I say the latter for a case like Fletcher Cox where the Eagles cut him to save cap money, took a cap hit (dead money they still guarantee him after cutting him), and then re-signed him. So they’re paying him from two contracts this year, technically, but it created cap savings for this year. If you look at a player on overthecap you can see how much money a team would save and how much dead money it would assume by cutting or trading him (often different implications) before or after June 1st (also different). This can help explain why Denver is so screwed for a couple of years if Russell Wilson’s play stays cratered. It’ll be a while before they can get out of that deal without nuking their cap. That’s also why a lot of these maneuvers are about spreading out cap hits on players who aren’t long for a team.
Thanks Oooof. I’ll check out overthecap, too. Appreciate it.
My pleasure. This stuff is designed to be misleading and full of weird workarounds, so if it’s not intuitive, that’s not just you.
That’s still on pace for 95 for 1035 over the course of a season, not terrible
Over the course of a season being the key phrase, he can’t play more than 3 games in a season. He’s played 10 games over 3 seasons. He’s worth literally nothing.
I’ve had the vibe that he got a glimpse of life post-Brees and hasn’t wanted to play for NO since Payton followed Brees.
The timing of his first surgery was the first clue
Based on his refusal to communicate with the Saints for almost an entire offseason after signing his big contract, it’s clear his only goal was to milk his injury and play as little as possible. Thomas has shown a total lack of character and accountability. Saints should have cut or traded him 1-2 years ago. Or perhaps Saints should sue him for lack of good faith and fraud. Good riddance!
Green Bay next year on a 1 year prove it deal.
If he signs for vet min, I’m all for it.
Hope Juju finds a nice landing spot because this sets up a whole lot of “Mahomes to Thomas” next season lol
The Saints will be getting rid of Thomas but they’re still stuck with a GM who can put them in salary cap hell. They should probably jettison him next.
“the team would have an extra $14MM in cap flexibility thanks to today’s maneuverings”
Always finding a way around the cap. Amazing.
Good riddance squidward looking SOB
Here’s 900k to gtfo. I’d skip out the door if my boss offered me that too