Proposed Trade Reunites Raiders’ $140 Million Star With Derek Carr on Saints

BakoSaint · 07-13-2023, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by AsylumGuido

I believe this is a prove it year for Thomas. If he returns to anywhere near his previous form I would expect they jump all over a long term deal to keep him around. He'll only be a couple of years from breaking every record held by Colston and future cap space wouldn't be an issue. I believe that Thomas has even indicated he wants to stick around to work with Carr as long as possible. That's at least five years for Carr and probably longer.

I believe the worse Thomas does this year, or the more he is injured, the more likely he is back in 2024. In the unlikely event that he returns to 2019 form there would be a bidding war for his services like Armstead or Williams and we might lose that war. But if he plays a few games, appears to have lost a step, fights with teammates, and then gets injured and undergoes microfracture surgery on both knees, we are likely to resign him in order to avoid the dead money cap hit, just like we have done with Peat and Winston when they have been injured or underperformed in supposedly make or break years. We face an $18 million cap hit of dead money for Thomas in 2024 but if nobody else is competing for his services we can likely retain him and keep the immediate cap hit to $11-12 million while pushing some of the dead money forward to future years, Loomis style.

07-13-2023, 06:59 PM	#20
BakoSaint 1000 Posts + Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 2,409	Re: Proposed Trade Reunites Raiders’ $140 Million Star With Derek Carr on Saints Originally Posted by AsylumGuido I believe this is a prove it year for Thomas. If he returns to anywhere near his previous form I would expect they jump all over a long term deal to keep him around. He'll only be a couple of years from breaking every record held by Colston and future cap space wouldn't be an issue. I believe that Thomas has even indicated he wants to stick around to work with Carr as long as possible. That's at least five years for Carr and probably longer. I believe the worse Thomas does this year, or the more he is injured, the more likely he is back in 2024. In the unlikely event that he returns to 2019 form there would be a bidding war for his services like Armstead or Williams and we might lose that war. But if he plays a few games, appears to have lost a step, fights with teammates, and then gets injured and undergoes microfracture surgery on both knees, we are likely to resign him in order to avoid the dead money cap hit, just like we have done with Peat and Winston when they have been injured or underperformed in supposedly make or break years. We face an $18 million cap hit of dead money for Thomas in 2024 but if nobody else is competing for his services we can likely retain him and keep the immediate cap hit to $11-12 million while pushing some of the dead money forward to future years, Loomis style.
BakoSaint 1000 Posts + Join Date: Dec 2018 Posts: 2,409