3 teams that should trade for Michael Thomas

1. Jacksonville Jaguars

The Trevor Lawrence-era for the Jaguars begins in 2021, but there’s no reason it can’t be the Lawrence-Thomas era.

Jacksonville isn’t as desperate for a wide receiver as the other teams listed, but they definitely could use the depth. Their current trio of D.J. Chark, Marvin Jones, and Laviska Shenault will probably do fine out on the field, but they’ve got No. 1 draft pick Lawrence at the helm. They want to do better than fine.

If traded, Michael Thomas would easily be the most accomplished player in the Jaguars’ receiver room and could emerge as the “alpha” of them all. His pairing with Lawrence would immediately strike fear in opponents’ hearts and could potentially rank one day alongside Mahomes-Hill or Brady-Edelman.

It’s a stretch, we know, but if anyone can inspire Thomas, it’s former coach Urban Meyer. Thomas and Meyer met at Ohio state, where Meyer helped groom Thomas into the record-breaking wide receiver he is today. In his collegiate career, Thomas boasted 112 receptions for 1602 yards and 18 touchdowns, averaging 14.2 yards per reception.

When Meyer retired from Ohio State in 2018, Thomas was one of the first to sing his praises and hint at the possibility of the two getting back together again.

One potential downside of Jacksonville bringing on Thomas is that his skillset and slant-heavy route-running style replicates that of current wideout Marvin Jones. Having two possession receivers who don’t record many yards after the catch in the starting lineup doesn’t make much sense, and one will probably be benched.

Still, this trade overall does make sense, at least more than others.

Jacksonville has plenty of cap space to trade for Thomas. In return, the Saints could receive top prospect C.J. Henderson to boost their secondary. The Saints and Jaguars won’t play each other in the regular season until at least 2023, so it would be farewell for a while.

If the Saints truly want to offload Thomas, sending him to Jacksonville would be one of their best moves. They could get Henderson, get rid of all the drama, and maybe even get good karma for rekindling Thomas and Meyer’s friendship.

More likely than not, Thomas will stay in New Orleans this season. But his potential reunion with Meyer and pairing with Lawrence is exciting to entertain, even as a Saints fan.