This doesn't excite me either. I was hoping the team would look into getting a bigger, more solid, less injury-prone back via the draft or free agency to handle the work load. I give credit to Thomas and everything he has done for the Saints. But I've grown sick of looking through the injury depleted running back corps over the past seasons and wondering from game to game who was going to shoulder (or knee, ankle, etc) the load. Going back to the last few injury plagued seasons of Deuce to Antowain Smith, to Aaron Stecker, to Mike Bell, to Thomas, to Hamilton, to Ivory it seems like the team thinks they can just throw a body out there and it will be good enough to get the job done. I don't agree with this. The most productive back in the team's history was obtained with a first round draft pick. Why the HECK is Payton satisfied with oft-injured unknowns to handle one of the most important spots on the roster.
I know a good run game requires good run blocking and that was lacking last season. But if we had a Stephen Jckson type back it would help our offense vastly. Rather than being able to run sometimes because teams feared the passing attack, we would be able to actually run the ball when we want to, which would open up the passing even more. Who knows, they may even be able to convert those 3rd and 4th down short yardage situations (Seattle playoff game anyone) that they seem to not get so often.
I dearly hope I am wrong and Thomas runs for 2,000 yards during the upcoming 18 game season, leads the Saints to their second Superbowl title and makes the pro bowl. But I don't expect it and I sure am not all excited about the prospect of the Saint's best running back being a guy who has averaged 41 yards per game and 5 games missed for injury over the 4 seasons he's been on the team.
Now go prove me wrong Pierre! PLEASE!

I like PT, so I'm glad we got this done. What it tells me is that we are now committed to the "Running Back By Committee" approach. You can debate whether that's a good thing or not, but PT is not a feature back like Steven Jackson so we are going to run different RBs out there depending on the situation. PT, IMO, is the best running back in the league at catching balls out of the backfield, especially on screens. He is such a threat and a great weapon in that capacity. The Saints now need to make sure they have enough depth to balance the load.

PT is hardly in the top 10 backs in the league. Signing/drafting a guy like that (a top 10 caliber back) would excite me. But re-signing a guy who missed 10 games last year and averaged 3.2 YPA when he did play, not so much. The Saints had the 5th worst rushing offense in the NFL last year. Let that sink in....5th WORST. If re-signing Thomas is enough to make you and others here jump for joy, rave about his artistic running and shout HELL YEAH!!!!, then good for you. Myself, I have higher hopes and expect more from the front office. If they go into next year planning on PT being the featured back, then I will consider them short sighted, be very disappointed, and will expect them to have continued RB injuries and be searching other team's practice squads for bodies to sign just like they did last year. Time will tell if I am right or not.

Cause someone that knows someone that's friends with someone who is related to someone who told someone that someone said Pierre Thomas wanted Steven Jackson money.

I think you're basing everything of a simple YPA for a single season, not a good judgement call,

Thomas, Bush, and a lot of our other RB's played very little in 2010, so being 28th in rushing is understandable. Ivory running more than everyone didn’t improve that stat either.

IF you look at the stats, it will explain things better for you.
Jackson has always had almost 2x the Attempts at running that Thomas has. Thomas could easily clear 1200-1600 a season if he was given 324 Rush Attempts and 51 receiving attempts that Jackson is getting, all of the stats prove that.
Instead Thomas has 147 Rush attempts and 39 receiving attempts at the most in a season, and his YPA rushing was 5.4, and YPA receiving was 7.7. In 2007-2008 Thomas had even less attempts and still did a 4.8 rushing and 9 receiving.

The problem with playing on the Saints is you have to be selfless. Colston will never get the numbers to put him in the HOF, because we play as a team and spread the ball around. Thomas, Ivory and Bush will never get their attempts either.
12 million for 4 years is a steal for an all around RB with PT's consistency and abilities. If we could get 4 RB's with the ability of PT for 48 million over 4 years, Id be in heaven.

Really cant understand why you have a problem with it. Especially sense Payton is crazy happy about it, and Im sure he knows PT's abilities better than anyone on this board.

i'm sure if a ingram or leshoure is there at 24 he will grab one.

I personally do not believe the Saints are done at addressing the RB situation. If Mark Ingram is available when the Saints pick in the first round, which is highly unlikely, my bet is they pick him. Another guy they may go for is Mikel Leshoure. I am not saying the Saints will draft a RB in the first round, but the chances are very likely if one of those two are available. I know there are some pressing needs on defense, but it was pretty obvious to me the lack of running game kept the Saints from making a strong run at a repeat.