The New Orleans Saints are facing down the clock as they attempt to negotiate an extension with veteran wide receiver Michael Thomas, resulting in some productive talks but not quite sealing the deal, according to Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football. The progress is crucial as the team approaches the self-imposed deadline set up in Thomas’ restructured contract.
When New Orleans restructured the former All-Pro’s five-year, $96.25M deal earlier this year, it set up a timebomb due to detonate on the third day of the new league year, which falls on March 17. When the team moved almost $14.5M from his 2023 base salary to his 2024 roster bonus, it put immediate pressure on the Saints’ brass to get a new deal done.
Thomas’s new 2024 roster bonus, again, due in six days, currently measures $31.755M. If the Saints and Thomas are unable to reach an agreement for an extension by March 17, the roster bonus becomes guaranteed and immediately hamstrings the team with a massive amount of dead money implications.
If the team were to release Thomas as a pre-June 1 cut, an almost unthinkable possibility, the team would be shouldered with almost $50M in dead cap over the next four years. Designating him as a post-June 1 cut would lessen the dead money to just over $26M and provide the Saints with cap savings of $1.37M in 2023 and $6.19M in 2024.
Thomas is long removed from the 2019 season that saw him lead the NFL in receptions (149) and receiving yards (1,725), playing in only ten games since receiving all of his accolades for that year. He did display a spark of that talent in the three games he played this season, but the emergence of rookies Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed in his absence has made Thomas’ presence more icing than cake.
The restructuring initially had many under the impression that New Orleans intended to part ways with the former Offensive Player of the Year, but with Underhill’s most recent report, it appears that the two parties are attempting to prolong their partnership. Regardless of their decision, Thomas’ current contract is untenable, and the deadline to make a decision that the team set up for itself is fast approaching.
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