Michael Thomas will already miss the start of the 2021 season with the New Orleans Saints but the situation appears to be deteriorating.
Things were always going to be different for New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas in the 2021 NFL season. With Drew Brees retiring, that turned the page on a decades-long chapter for the offense and meant that Thomas would be playing a full season with a quarterback other than Brees for the first time in his career.
No one, however, could’ve foreseen just how different things would look as training camp is underway.
Thomas, of course, is not practicing at camp. The wide receiver underwent ankle surgery in June, a procedure that will ultimately end up keeping him out for several weeks in the regular season. When that surgery occurred on an injury that was present in the 2020 campaign always seemed odd.
Then came reports that Thomas ignored calls from trainers and coaches for three months this offseason with the indication being that a check-in could’ve sped up the timeline on the surgery. That was also on the heels of head coach Sean Payton being clearly frustrated by the situation of not having his No. 1 receiver on the field for the start of the season.
On Monday, Thomas weighed in on the matter cryptically on social media as he posted the following message to Twitter:
— Michael Thomas (@Cantguardmike) August 9, 2021
Could the end of the Saints-Michael Thomas relationship be transpiring in real-time?
To recap, we have a player who waited to have surgery and will miss regular-season games reportedly in part because he didn’t keep in touch with the organization to help develop a more reasonable timetable. We have a coach who is upset at that fact. And now we have a wide receiver who is getting paid a ton of money but, from what you can gather from his message, seems irked by how the situation has been portrayed.
While this might be over-simplifying the matter, this doesn’t seem like it’s going to end well.
Admittedly, part of that supposition stems from the expected hardships of the Saints offense this season. Jameis Winston and Taysom Hill are far cries from Brees and that directly affects Thomas’ value and productivity. If you throw in sub-standard quarterback play on top of everything going on, that’s a lot for an already seemingly strained relationship to handle.
Maybe Thomas isn’t saying anything because he doesn’t want to leave the Saints or upset the apple cart. However, when a star player of his caliber and with his track record is being painted as somewhat villainous in an injury situation when he doesn’t feel that’s the case, those are tough bridges to cross for team and player.
There’s no way of truly knowing what’s going on behind the scenes in New Orleans with Michael Thomas but the picture being painted isn’t a pretty one. That doesn’t mean that his time is running out with the Saints and he could be on the move, but if that were to happen, it would be hard to say that the signs weren’t there.