jeanpierre

TheOak

Are the talking heads out of things to talk about? This is a next year discussion and decision which the author never points out.

A lot can happen in a single season and even if nothing happens to Thomas a lot can happen with the rest of our receivers to make this decision much easier.

jeanpierre

Subtitle in the article references @CantGuardMike is in the final year of his rookie contract - so now would be the time for the Saints Front Office to make a move and extend him with friendlier cap numbers...

It is the proverbial elephant in the room for the Saints Front Office at this time...

The Dude

It would not surprise me at all if it didn’t happen. I hope to hell it does but the Saints have shown they will let a star player go if they think it’s for the betterment of the team. Thomas is a rare talent though. Perfect guy to develop a young QB with. He will be great for us in rebuilding.

TheOak

Thank you for pointing that out, I have just enough time to read a title and an article. Declining vision, cluttered advertisements on mobile devices, etc... I'm not going to hunt pertinent details elsewhere.

I understand your point and the point of the article, I get it... I understand for some it is a concern and a distraction... I just think that elephant better get a chair because it is in no ones interest to push this now. From a fan's perspective I wish the media would stop trying to push pending contracts into the realm of public opinion... Nothing good ever comes of it, Id argue that it generally ends up damaging the process by either inflating or deflating fragile ego's.

- Michael Thomas seems to have a bigger than life personality on and off the field, nothing tells me he is going to want anything other than a contract that matches. It is in his interest to push it to its limit and try and test free agency. This does not align with my interests as a fan, and it shouldn't its this mans livelihood.

- For the Saints every deal has two aspects, one being cap & market and the other being the overall economics of the deal. Michael's Cap hit in 2019 is $1.6MM and Saints will not pay over 16.7 for Michael Thomas in 2020. Total 2 year payout $18.3MM.....

Saints have $12MM in dead money in 2019 and it looks like zero so far in 2020... Waiting will free up $12MM plus the increased cap which is generally 6-10MM. To be fair we have a grotesquely large number of Free Agents coming up in 2020 which I think would have been a better topic for an article.

Lastly we have the Saints track record in regards to $100MM+ contracts (Brees, Graham) sized contracts... They Franchise Tag at least a year and that is where the $16.7MM comes from, its the 2020 WR tag value. The article wholly ignores the Franchise Tag, its not even listed in the bulleted decisions facing the Saints....

In my humble opinion.

CheramieIII

and no way in hell we don't re-sign him!

Rugby Saint II

His value and cost is only going to go up with another outstanding season. I'd like to sign him to an extension now and ensure that the best wide receiver in the NFL remains a Saint for life. He is our go to guy for clutch downs and deserves to be paid. We shouldn't wait until next year when we get into a bidding war for his services.

I know it's not a fresh idea but.....pay the man!

ScottF

we have let some guys go that got career contracts: Fujita, Watson, Kelemete, Nicks, Mills, Bentley... but when have we let a superstar walk?

K Major

Mark Ingram perhaps? IMO he was the constant heart beat for our team.

ScottF

Considering we low-balled him I think there had to be something more to it.
We decided he wasn't worth $5 million a year, which is hard to believe


ps- he is not a superstar