MARCH 13: The Saints will follow through with this reported plan. Thomas is no longer on the team’s roster as of the start of the 2024 league year, NewOrleans.football’s Nick Underhill tweets. Thomas’ dead money hit will drop from $12.4MM to $11.2MM, NewOrleans.football’s Mike Triplett notes. This separation will still be expensive for the Saints, who will take on a $9.2MM hit in 2025. The Saints also cut Thomas with a failed physical designation.
Rather than Maye, the Saints are using their second post-June 1 designation on Jameis Winston. Due to another uniquely structured contract, Winston’s cap charge will drop from $4.6MM to $3.4MM on June 2, Tripplett adds. The Saints will take on $7.3MM in dead cap on the Winston deal in 2025.
MARCH 7: Michael Thomas‘ four-year run of success in the 2010s kept providing chances as his career skidded off track in the 2020s. It appears the injury-prone wide receiver will finally separate from the Saints.
New Orleans is expected to release Thomas when the new league year begins March 13, NOLA.com’s Jeff Duncan notes. Although Thomas participated more in games last season than he had since 2019, the former All-Pro’s run of injuries always made it likely he would not be back for the ’24 campaign.
Thomas, who turned 31 last week, missed the Saints’ final seven games due to a knee injury. This ran the former All-Pro’s missed-games count to a whopping 48 since 2020. Various injuries are responsible for this, and the most recent one paused a season in which Thomas had accumulated 39 receptions for 448 yards in 10 games. The yardage total doubles as his most since he notched an NFL-leading 1,725 during the 2019 season, which featured a still-standing NFL record of 149 catches.
That season came on the heels of the Saints giving the former second-round pick a five-year, $96.25MM extension. Thomas had run off back-to-back first-team All-Pro seasons in 2018 and ’19, helping Drew Brees remain one of the NFL’s best quarterbacks into his early 40s. But the ankle, foot and knee trouble that has thrown the Ohio State alum’s career off course in the 2020s will almost definitely lead him out of town.
This being the Saints, a complex contract structure is in place. The parties, after multiple adjustments last year, agreed to give it another try on what amounted to a $10MM payment. Thomas’ latest contract was designed to be extended or shed from the Saints’ payroll, as ESPN.com’s Katherine Terrell notes; the latter course will bring about a $11.2MM in dead money via a post-June 1 designation. It appears the Saints will use both their allotted post-June 1 moves this year, with Marcus Maye also set to be cut on March 13.
Thomas was also arrested on a simple battery charge last year, and Duncan adds the talented wideout gained a reputation as a difficult personality inside the Saints’ facility. While this clearly did not dissuade the Dennis Allen-led team from signing off on another reunion last year, as Thomas said he was only interested in playing for the Saints again, the parties will go their separate ways soon.
Although the Broncos are the current landing spot for ex-Saints, it will be interesting to see if Sean Payton would take a chance here. Thomas rankled the Saints by not going through with an ankle surgery early during the 2021 offseason, leading to a mid-offseason operation that delayed his return in what became Payton’s final year with the team. A setback then led to Thomas missing all of the 2021 season, leaving the Saints with a bottom-tier receiving corps. While the Broncos have some issues to sort out at receiver, Thomas would not seem a lock to reunite with Payton once the Saints officially move on. But adding a former All-Pro at a low rate could appeal to a team regrouping after what will become the most expensive release in NFL history.
Hello Jets.
Thomas is a shadow of what he once was and you have to wonder about how motivated he might be at this point in his career.
Julio jones all over again lmao
What took them so long? He should have been cut last year – as two straight years of underperforming are enough to know a player isn’t going to regain their form.
The first few lines of this report state the case accurately. This probably should have been a few years ago, if not for the cap.
With Brees, those timed routes and precise slants were otherworldly deadly with Thomas. The combination of his injuries, mental breakdowns/diva behavior, and Brees’ retirement all significantly impacted Thomas’ position as the league’s best possession receiver. His contract made his movement difficult, but the Michael Thomas of the last few seasons has been a scant shadow of his prior self.
Could a capable veteran who knows how to utilize those type of routes or a precise quarterback who can place the ball in good spots help resurrect Thomas’ career? Now’s the time to see. New Orleans is definitely going to need a new possession target, though.
Saints are instantly better with Michael Thomas gone. He was a vastly overrated egomaniacal complainer and malingerer. Brees phenomenal accuracy made him appear much better than he actually was. His only discernible skills since Brees’ retirement is milking injuries and disappearing from the team. In 2021 he went 5 months ignoring calls from Saints leadership so he could party and travel in the off-season and delay a much needed surgery until training camp (how convenient for him). No class. Hopefully he wasn’t a bad influence on Chris Olave, who is significantly more skilled and has great potential.
Clearly a move by the team that has hampered itself with contract manipulations similar to having too many credit cards and ‘sliding’ money from account to account without positive progress. This release will help their cause but doubt it’ll change their contract processes.
I’m thinking either the Packers, Bills or Rams
Only on a league-minimum flier. No team should hamstring their salary cap with his injury history and he might want to consider retirement.
Heh, odds are Sean Payton makes a run at him like every other ex-Saint.
BOOM
mic drop
LOL 😀
Complainer. Malcontent. Overrated. Saints should have cut him 3 years ago when he ignored all calls from management for 5 months to intentionally delay having an off-season surgery until training camp started.
He’s so washed now but as a veteran piece I say sign with Jets or Niners.