Saints GM Mickey Loomis said Michael Thomas‘ stay on the team’s active/PUP list would not last long. That translated to a rather notable transaction Wednesday.
Thomas was back at practice for the Saints, marking a long-awaited return after the former All-Pro had missed the entire offseason program and the bulk of New Orleans’ 2020s game action. A Thomas return would give the Saints one of the NFL’s most intriguing wideout crews, with Jarvis Landry and Chris Olave on this year’s roster.
When Thomas last played a full season, he finished as the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year after breaking Marvin Harrison‘s single-season reception record. A spate of injuries — headlined by a troublesome ankle ailment — have headlined Thomas’ 2020s career path. Thomas, 29, missed all of last season after undergoing surgery later than the Saints hoped he would. A subsequent setback that occurred during the season caused Thomas to be shut down for all of 2021.
His missing a second straight offseason program this year certainly represented cause for concern, but if the All-Pro playmaker can distance himself from this period, a path toward the Saints deploying one of the NFL’s best skill-position groups is in play. There are notable moving parts here. Thomas initially suffered his ankle injury in Week 1 of the 2020 season. This being a storyline nearly two years later remains an issue for the Saints, who have Alvin Kamara potentially set for a six-game suspension.
Prior to Thomas’ injury-plagued 2020 ending with just 438 receiving yards, he ripped off back-to-back All-Pro campaigns. The second of which included an NFL-most 1,725 yards. That performance came just after the Saints gave Thomas a five-year, $96.25MM extension. Thanks to restructuring, Thomas is on New Orleans’ 2022 payroll at $13MM. That number spikes to $28.3MM in 2023.
Oh noes everybody, the slantinater is back.