After playing a key role in courting veteran quarterback Derek Carr to sign with the New Orleans Saints, wide receiver Michael Thomas now looks to be the apple of the Saints’ eye. And Carr may play a key role in his potential return. At the end of the 2022 NFL season, the Saints re-worked Thomas’ deal and it looked like he might have been on his way to a split with the organization. Now, New Orleans is working toward keeping its All-Pro wideout.
Keeping Thomas along with young wide receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed would equip Carr with an outstanding receiver corps, so long as health holds up. And therein lies the biggest concern with making progress toward an extension. Thomas is a dominant wide receiver when he is healthy, one of the most dominant in the NFL. But it’s unmistakable that availability has been an issue having been able to appear in just 10 games over the last three seasons.
The good news is, the Saints have been one of the most creative teams when it comes to contracts and their cap guru Khai Harley could put together a masterpiece of a deal to get it done. New Orleans could construct a contract that is set up to allow Thomas to earn his due for stellar play in 2023 now that he’s paired up with Carr, but also protects the organization if anything were to jeopardize his availability. Here is an example of what they could do, based on a contract used by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers just last year for veteran wideout Julio Jones.
Details on Julio Jones' incentives in his Bucs contract: he has 10 $200,000 bonuses in play for up to $2 million in incentives. He gets them if he reaches 50/60/70/80 receptions, and 600/700/800/900 receiving yards, plus $200k if Bucs win NFC title and $200k with Super Bowl win.
— Greg Auman (@gregauman) July 27, 2022
Jones signed a 1-year, $6 million deal with a boatload of incentives that ranged from performance incentives to team-success measures. Of course, several void years were added to help spread out the modest signing bonus as well. New Orleans could take a similar approach with Thomas guaranteeing him a base value but allowing him to work his way to a larger payday. Here’s an example of a structure they could land on:
Brad Spielberger of Pro Football Focus estimates a one-year, $12.5 million deal for Thomas may be his market. Thomas was due a $15.5 million base salary in 2023 before he re-worked his deal after the final week of the 2022 season. So we’ll work with the $12.5 million as his maximum earning potential:
- Base contract value: 1 year, $10 million
- $1.165 million base salary (veteran minimum)
- $8,835,000 signing bonus with two void years ($2,778,000 per year)
- 2023 cap hit: $4,110,000 (2023)
- 2024 cap hit: $2,778,000 (2024)
- 2025 cap hit: $2,778,000 (2024)
- 2023 incentives: $250,000 each
- Catches: 40, 50, 60, 70
- Receiving yards: 600, 700, 800, 900
- 50% of offensive snaps played
- 75% of offensive snaps played
This gives the Saints the ability to entice Thomas into returning because he stands to make a good payday if he were to be healthy for the season and produce, but also protects him if something stands in the way of that. Sure, perhaps a $10 million base value is a little lofty. But Thomas is still one of the most dominant pass-catchers in today’s game when healthy, as proved in his early season scoring acumen in 2022.
New Orleans could drop the base value a few million and raise the incentive payoffs to offset as well. This would allow them to arrive at the same value upside, while not committing as heavily in the foundational deal. Either way, Harley and the Saints are sure to get very creative in this structure as a means of getting Thomas and Carr on the field together. Getting this done would be a major step towards not only competing for an NFC South title but also positioning themselves to make noise in the conference as a whole.
