Once upon a time, New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas was Drew Brees’ go-to guy and was on a historic pace to be one of the most prolific pass-catchers of all-time. Unfortunately, Brees’ eventual decline and an avalanche of tough injury luck knocked Thomas off course.
After racking up 470 receptions in his first four seasons, the Ohio State product has managed just 95 catches since the end of the 2020 season. He missed the entire following year with an ankle injury, and a bad knee knocked him out of seven games this season. Thomas is evidently frustrated with his plight. In a bold move for team camaraderie, he decided to vent about his latest ailment on Twitter and blamed Derek Carr for the damage.
Can’t be easy to be in Thomas’ shoes. The time is ticking on his career ahead of his age-31 season in 2024. Carr isn’t some world beater of a quarterback, yet he did play a lot better toward the end of his maiden season in New Orleans and almost got the Saints to the playoffs. They tied the Buccaneers for the NFC South lead; Tampa Bay just so happened to have those pesky tiebreakers.
Chemistry between Thomas and Carr wasn’t a strong point of New Orleans’ passing attack. They connected on only 60.9% of their attempts (39 out of 64). Considering Thomas averaged 6.4 targets per game, though, it’s a little disingenuous for him to say the Saints weren’t trying to get him the ball. I mean, that Chris Olave guy is pretty damn good, and when you have a weapon like Alvin Kamara out of the backfield, it’s tough to turn him down when he’s matched up with a linebacker or safety.
This tends to happen more in the NBA these days, but to be fair, modern pro athletes can make waves in the public sphere about how unhappy they are with their current team and often get their wish to be traded or released. Thomas worked out a restructured one-year contract to return to New Orleans last year. Now it seems like he’s eager to leave for a new team for the first time as a pro — and he seems to have one particular suitor in mind.
Just look at the rest of Thomas’ X/Twitter feed and the posts he’s resharing. He’s practically begging to go to the Kansas City Chiefs.
Somebody has a crush! Can’t blame him, either.
Given that the Chiefs have had issues in their wide receiver corps all year with dropped passes and lacking options outside of rising rookie Rashee Rice, there might indeed be a spot for Thomas to contribute in Kansas City going forward. He’ll just have to stay healthy enough to capitalize on the golden opportunity it’d be to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes.
That’s the scary thing about the Chiefs. They’re not going anywhere. This is the best defense they’ve had since Mahomes took over. Steve Spagnuolo is in his bag. Travis Kelce has found the fountain of football youth in the playoffs, spurred on by his lovely lady Taylor Swift, who will reportedly attend Super Bowl LVIII!
Of course Michael Thomas wants in on this party. Who wouldn’t? For all the time he’s missed on the field with the Saints, at least he hasn’t missed much in terms of elite QB play in the post-Brees/Sean Payton era. Carr brought some stability to the fold at least. Alas, New Orleans parted with longtime offensive coordinator Pete Carmichael, haven’t filled that role yet, and are entering another offseason in salary cap hell (-$83.6 million lololol).
Sure feels like Thomas is a bit of a cancer to the Saints locker room if we’re being honest. At the same time, I feel like he’s jaded and needs a change of scenery. It’s in the best interest of both sides to part ways and move on. You just wonder how much Thomas has left in the tank and whether or not the Chiefs would be interested in him.
Keep dreaming, @Cantguardmike. It could happen!
