Soon after Michael Thomas received his five-year, $100MM extension from the Saints, we heard that it wasn’t quite $100MM in reality. The base of the deal is $96.25MM, with incentives in the final couple of years that will be very hard to reach which could bump it up to $100MM. Now we have full details on the contract, courtesy of Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk.com. Florio has a year by year breakdown off all the incentives and bonuses Thomas will get. To reach the full value of $100MM, Thomas “needs to do each of the following in 2022 and 2023: Catch 100 passes, gain 1,400 yards, score 12 touchdowns, and get to the playoffs.”
Florio notes that the fully guaranteed portion of the deal is $35.64MM, “covering the first two years and a slice of 2021.” He seems to think the Saints aren’t actually tied to Thomas for too long if they don’t want to be, writing “the rolling guarantees give the Saints plenty of flexibility beyond 2020.” Thomas has put up absurd numbers in his first three years in the league, and he was the only consistent receiver New Orleans had for a lot of last season. Drew Brees was often throwing to a rotating cast of undrafted free agents and castoffs last year, so it’s safe to say they need Thomas.
Here’s more from around the league:
- Receiver Cameron Meredith landed on his feet as he signed with the Patriots earlier today, but he apparently isn’t fully healthy. New England placed him on the active/PUP list after inking him, per Doug Kyed of NESN.com. Meredith had a breakout 2016 campaign but then missed the entire 2017 season with a devastating knee injury and hasn’t been the same since. The Saints finally gave up on him and released him earlier this week after he was never able to fully recover during his time in New Orleans. Since it’s the active/PUP list and not the reserve/PUP list, Meredith could be activated at any time and resume practicing. He isn’t the only Patriots receiver that’s banged up, as the Pats are also waiting on Demaryius Thomas and Julian Edelman to heal up.
- Buccaneers coach Bruce Arians promised to hire women when he got hired by Tampa Bay, and he followed through by bringing on two female assistant coaches back in March. He didn’t stop there, as the Bucs have also hired Carly Helfand as a scouting assistant, per Jenna Laine of ESPN.com. Laine notes that she also worked for Penn and the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL. She was the only woman interviewed out of ten candidates, and Laine notes the Buccaneers were “very impressed” with her.
- In case you missed it, we took a look at a few potential landing spots for Redskins left tackle Trent Williams.
How many other women work for the Bucs? Their entire organization has to have more than 4 to 5 females. Bruce’s want for diversity attention is annoying at this point.
Why? When one is the first hiring a group he is getting the best and someday a woman will be a gm, head coach and coordinator so get over yourself
Not saying the women aren’t good at the job but the Bucs are run horribly
There probably are many women and other minorities within the organization, but on the business/operations side of things. These hires are occurring on the football side of things. Female scouts, coaches, etc. is groundbreaking.