Five years ago, Michael Thomas was the best wide receiver in the league. He finished the 2019 season with an NFL-record 149 receptions, led the league in receiving by over 300 yards, and nine touchdowns — tied for third in the league. In a sharp dropoff, Thomas has amassed just 1,057 yards and four touchdowns in the four seasons since, and it culminated in the New Orleans Saints releasing him on Wednesday, March 13, designating him as a post-June 1 cut.
It's been a long road to this point, so let's take some time to look in the rearview at the career of one of the few remaining relics from the Sean Payton and Drew Brees days.
2012-15: Underwhelming production, great measurables
College football/sports is my specialty, so I'd be remiss to skip over Thomas' college career. He was a four-star recruit coming out of high school, and he committed to play for Ohio State in 2011. His freshman year was quiet: he only logged three catches for 22 yards. He then redshirted his sophomore year and didn't record any stats.
He finally started to find some footing in the 2014 season, where he finished as the second-leading receiver (799 yards, 9 touchdowns) on a team that relied heavily on Ezekiel Elliott. His production dipped ever-so-slightly in the 2015 season: he logged an identical nine touchdowns and 781 yards — just 18 fewer than the year before. However, he was the leading receiver on the team by over 300 yards since Elliott was still the primary focus of the offense.
Season | GP | Receptions | Yards | YPC | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2012 | 11 | 3 | 22 | 7.3 | 0 |
2013 (RS) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
2014 | 15 | 54 | 799 | 14.8 | 9 |
2015 | 13 | 56 | 781 | 13.9 | 9 |
Total | 39 | 113 | 1,602 | 14.2 | 18 |
Despite not cracking 800 yards in a season during college, Thomas showed off a nose for the end zone and found ways to be productive in a run-first offense. In addition, his pre-draft measurables clocked in at nearly 6-foot-3 and over 210 pounds. He was subsequently drafted in the second round with the 47th overall pick of the 2016 NFL Draft.
2016: Setting Saints rookie records
Thomas cracked the starting lineup right away as the WR2 behind Brandin Cooks and logged four statement games. He burst onto the scene in Week 7 against the Kansas City Chiefs when he posted a game-high 10 catches for 130 yards for his first career 100-yard game. In Week 9 against the San Francisco 49ers, he hauled in five catches for 73 yards and two touchdowns in the first multi-score game of his career.
Thomas' second career 100-yard game came in Week 12 against the Los Angeles Rams, where he caught nine balls for 108 yards and cashed in on two touchdowns. This was the first time in his career that he would reach both the 100-yard and multiple-score milestones. He capped off the season with a fine toasting of the Atlanta Falcons' secondary to the tune of 10 catches, 156 yards, and a touchdown. Unfortunately, those Dirty Birds were led by eventual MVP Matt Ryan and won it 38-32.
Thomas set a laundry list of Saints franchise rookie records that not even Chris Olave passed in his extremely promising rookie year. Thomas shares the targets record (121) with Reggie Bush, and he outright holds the records in receptions (92), yards (1,137), receiving yards per game (75.8), and touchdowns (9). This set the tone for his next few seasons as Brees' favorite target.
2017-18: The rise of Can't Guard Mike
Ahead of the 2017 season, the Saints became the first of four teams to trade Cooks away and gave Thomas the promotion to WR1. He finished the 2017 season with 104 catches for 1,245 yards and five touchdowns. Only Jarvis Landry (112) and Larry Fitzgerald (109) finished the season with more, and his yardage landed him at sixth in the league. In the first playoff game of his career, he demolished the Carolina Panthers's secondary for eight catches and 131 yards en route to a 31-26 win in the Wild Card Round.
Although the 2017 NFC Divisional Round is known for something far more painful, Thomas was responsible for the Saints' first two touchdowns. He started to get some attention on the national level this year: he was voted to his first Pro Bowl and debuted at No. 81 on the 2018 NFL Top 100.
He started the 2018 season with a bang, posting a Saints single-game record 16 receptions in the season-opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers that he converted to 180 yards and a touchdown. Two weeks later against the Falcons, Thomas caught all 10 balls thrown his way for 129 yards, his second 100-plus yard game of the season. A 12-catch, 89-yard, and two-touchdown performance against the Cleveland Browns was sandwiched in between.
He stayed relatively quiet until the Week 9 showdown against the then-undefeated Los Angeles Rams. Thomas decided that the single-game reception record wasn't enough, so he went and hauled in 12 passes for a Saints single-game record 211 yards and a game-sealing 72-yard touchdown where he scorched Marcus Peters into a pile of ash and recreated Joe Horn's iconic cell phone celebration.
The next week against the Cincinnati Bengals, he was held in check in the yardage department but found the endzone twice for the second time of the season. He logged one more big game in the regular season — 11 catches for 109 yards and a touchdown in Week 16 against the Pittsburgh Steelers — before the playoffs hit again. He finished the year leading the NFL in receptions (and was sixth in yards) while breaking Horn's Saints single-season receiving yards record for the first time with 1,405.
He only made a difference in the first playoff game, but it was a dynamite appearance. Against the Philadelphia Eagles in the 2018 NFC Divisional round, Thomas reeled in 12 catches for 171 yards and a touchdown in the 20-14 win. He didn't do much in the 2018 NFC Championship, but the Saints still got robbed there and should have made the Super Bowl. Despite the team disappointments, Thomas' accolades were growing: he was named to his second straight Pro Bowl, earned his first All-Pro nod, and vaulted up to No. 13 in the 2019 NFL Top 100, just ahead of Alvin Kamara and just behind JJ Watt.
2019: Reaching the pinnacle
Ahead of the 2019 season, the Saints rewarded Thomas with a handsome five-year contract with $61 million in guarantees, making him the highest-paid wide receiver in league history. For one season — and one season only — he justified this exorbitant price tag.
Thomas' 2019 season is the stuff of legends: he posted nine games with 10+ receptions, 10 games of over 100 yards, and he found the end zone in eight games for nine scores. He was named the Offensive Player of the Year, earned his second All-Pro nod, and made his third Pro Bowl. He had climbed to his peak of No. 5 on the 2020 NFL Top 100 list, and Thomas was on top of the world.
He logged 123 yards on 10 catches in the season opener against the Houston Texans and blew the doors off of the Bucs' secondary in Week 5 with 11 catches for a monstrous 182 yards and two touchdowns. This was the start of a string of 11 games where Thomas only failed to reach 100 yards twice (Weeks 6 and 13). He notched five games of over 130 yards, and he went for over 150 yards in two of them (Bucs in Week 5, Falcons in Week 10).
It all came to a head in Week 16 against the Tennessee Titans — Thomas' last big game of the season. With his 12 receptions, he officially moved his season total to 145 and broke Marvin Harrison's single-season receptions record (143). He parlayed those record-breaking catches into 136 yards and a touchdown in the 38-28 win. Thomas finished the regular season atop the league in both catches with 149 — the NFL Record — and yards with 1,725. He also broke Saints single-season receiving record that he had just raised the bar on the year prior.
This was the last full season Thomas played for the Saints, and he never posted more than 600 yards in a season again while wearing black and gold.
2020-21: High-ankle Hell
Disaster struck immediately in the 2020 season: Thomas caught just three passes for 17 yards before leaving the game with the ever-finnicky high-ankle sprain.
He was sidelined until Week 5 when he was slated to return for the game against the Los Angeles Chargers. However, this was when he infamously punched teammate C.J. Gardner-Johnson in practice, and Thomas was subsequently deactivated and fined over $58,000. Eventually, he did make a return in Week 9 against the same Buccaneers he got injured playing earlier.
He remained in the lineup for six games and notched a pair of solid games: nine catches for 104 yards in the first meeting against the Falcons, and another nine catches for 105 yards two weeks later in the second meeting with the Dirty Birds. After the Week 14 game against the Eagles, though, he was placed on injured reserve due to lingering issues with his ankle.
He returned to the lineup for the playoffs and tallied 73 yards and his only touchdown of the season in the Wild Card Round against the Bears. The next week in the third showdown against the Buccaneers, Thomas didn't catch any of the four passes thrown his way and the season ended on a sour note for him. He dropped 67 spots down to No. 72 in the 2021 NFL Top 100.
"The surgery took place, and obviously, we would've liked that to have happened earlier than later, and quite honestly it should have."Sean Payton, 2021 Training camp
This is where the rift began: the Saints' front office and the coaching staff wanted Thomas to get surgery done on his ankle immediately after the season, but Thomas chose to wait until later in the summer in hopes of avoiding the procedure. He faced a setback ahead of the season and was sidelined with hopes he would return. After Week 8, though, Thomas took to Twitter and announced that he would miss the remainder of the season to get healthy again.
2022-23: Recurring injuries and the downfall
He returned, seemingly healthy, for the 2022 season and was productive (but not great) immediately. He caught five passes for 57 yards and two touchdowns in Week 1 against the Falcons, and that was the last multi-touchdown game from him.
In Week 2 against the Bucs, he snagged six catches for 65 yards and a touchdown. Week 3 saw the Saints take to Charlotte to take on the Panthers. The Saints lost the game 22-14, and Thomas exited the game early with a foot injury after catching five passes for 49 yards. He missed four games and lived in injury limbo before a move to the IR ended his 2022 season early. He finished 2022 with 16 catches for 171 yards and three touchdowns.
Thomas cited stress reactions to both his ankle and toe procedures as the reason for his extended absence, and there was hope he could stay healthy through a full season. However, when Thomas finally returned for an extended stretch in the 2023 season, he was a shell of the receiver he once was. He played in 10 games, which was the most since playing all 16 games in 2019. He was no longer the WR1; that was Olave's job now.
Thomas' sure hands took a serious step back: he only caught 39 of the 64 passes thrown his way (60.9%), a far cry from the 80.5% of passes he caught in 2019. His pay also reflected this regression: his contract was restructured and his per-year salary tanked from over $15 million to just over $1 million. He only found the end zone once in his final season in New Orleans and didn't eclipse 100 receiving yards in any games from his last two seasons with the Saints.
An unceremonious exit
The straw that broke the camel's back came against the Minnesota Vikings in Week 10 of the 2023 season. Thomas caught one pass for nine yards before leaving the game with a knee injury. Less than two weeks later, Thomas was put on the Saints' IR for the final time.
In his final four seasons in New Orleans, he amassed 95 catches for 1,057 yards and four touchdowns — the numbers previously expected from him in a single season. Thomas' tenure in New Orleans ends with him as the franchise's fourth-leading receiver behind only Marques Colston, Eric Martin, and Joe Horn with 6,569 career receiving yards. His 36 receiving touchdowns place him at seventh all-time in Saints history, as well.
Thomas' release marks the end of an era, but one that won't be forgotten soon. He will always be known as Drew Brees' favorite receiver in the twilight of his career, and the memories of the postseason runs from 2017-19 will live on, whether in infamy or glory. Thomas was a cornerstone of the franchise for years, and he has sealed up a spot in the Saints Ring of Honor at the bare minimum.