Saints wide receiver undefined hadn’t played in a game for well over a year, but he didn’t miss a beat in his return to action against the Falcons on Sunday.
Taking the field for the first time since Dec. 13, 2020, Thomas showed flashes of his former self in New Orleans’s 27–26 win at Atlanta. The 29-year-old wideout hauled in five catches for 57 yards and two touchdowns, proving to be a pivotal figure in the Saints’ comeback effort.
It took Thomas a little time to get into the flow of the game, but by the fourth quarter, he was the most effective offensive player on the field. He hauled in his first scoring catch from quarterback Jameis Winston with 11:12 remaining in the contest, bringing New Orleans within 10 points of Atlanta at the time.
The former NFL Offensive Player of the Year then found paydirt against less than eight minutes later with an impressive nine-yard catch from Winston.
Thomas, who missed most of the 2020 season and all of the ’21 campaign with an ankle injury and subsequent complications with his recovery, was previously listed as questionable for the Week 1 contest with a hamstring injury. He practiced for the first time in over a year in July but then missed about three weeks of training camp due to an ailing hamstring.
When he last played in 2020, Thomas was far from the player that won the NFL’s Offensive Player of the Year award during the ’19 season. He made just 40 catches for 438 yards and no scores in the seven games he played after returning from an ankle sprain.
However, the last time that Thomas was on the field for a full season, he was magnificent. During the ’19 campaign, he caught an NFL-record 149 passes for 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns.
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