Thomas has never coached in the NFL, but the Saints are familiar with him since he served as a training camp intern with the Saints in 2012. He did the same with the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2008.

Thomas spent the past two years as Arkansas’ running backs coach. Before that he spent four years at Washington, where he also added the title of associate head coach in his final season. He has coached running backs at Purdue, Idaho and Louisville.

It’s unclear what that means for current Saints running backs coach Dan Roushar -- though it’s possible Roushar could fill New Orleans’ vacancy as the tight ends coach since he coached tight ends for the previous two years at Michigan State before joining the Saints’ staff in 2013.

In 2014, Arkansas produced two 1,000 yard rushers in Jonathan Williams and Alex Collins. As a team, the Hogs rushed for 2,834 yards, nearly 400 yards more than they threw for. In 2013, Thomas's first year there, the disparity was even wider, rushing for 2,504 yards to only 1,782 yards passing. All of this comes in the hyper-competitive (unless it's bowl season) SEC West.

Obviously Arkansas's talent at running back played a huge part in their success in the back half of the 2014 season, and they fairly consistently churn out NFL quality backs. However, Thomas thrives in run heavy offenses. This could bode well for the Saints, as they're trying to establish more of an identity in the running game. Despite popular opinion, the Saints' offense was more or less the same in terms of rushing to passing ratio from 2013-2014, so the presence of Thomas may be able to at least aid the development of young, physical runners such as Khiry Robinson (and Mark Ingram if Ingram stays).

Thomas is a part of what will likely be an oncoming slew of assistant coaching hires for the Saints, as Head Coach Sean Payton has promised serious change in New Orleans following an astoundingly disappointing 2014 campaign.

Linebackers Coach?

Brian Young. It's his third season. Does he get more control or is he the problem as well

Nothing against Young, but I'd rather have a former linebacker and let Young coach defensive linemen...

They're different skill sets...

But just because you played one position doesn't mean you can't be very good at coaching another.