His motivation won't matter if he can't stay healthy. JJ Watt has a lot of talent too. Honestly Terrelle Pryor had a lot of talent. I don't think Michael Thomas is the most or least motivated player. I view things like fighting teammates and going AWOL when surgery is needed in the offseason as negatives but I would be willing to overlook them if he had produced recently. But I think with 2.5 years of nagging injuries, his magically staying healthy point forward just isn't the most likely scenario. So I would rather trade him if we can, or cut him in the offseason if his health issues continue to 3 years without good production and nobody will trade for him.

Beyond the issue of his health or motivation, I also don't view high investment in the wide receiver position as a winning formula for building a championship contender. The Steelers won for years by letting star receivers walk. The Patriots through their championship years bought low and sold high on wide receivers and did not give any record breaking type deals to receivers. Thomas' current contract could actually be cheap if he got healthy with the escalation of the market, but he is not healthy, and if he got healthy he would want a new deal pretty soon, before we are I think able to contend at a championship level. So that is the other factor to me. Maybe Panning somehow comes back from his foot injuries and becomes the next Lane Johnson. Maybe Werner needs a long term deal and is lighting it up down the road. Maybe Lattimore gets healthy. Maybe we find a franchise QB and need to lock them up. I want to spend the money at those positions. I want to let the Antonio Browns, Wes Welkers, Randy Mosses, Sony Michels, and Leveon Bells walk, because I see more successful franchises do that and I see it work.