An altercation between Michael Thomas and cornerback C.J. Gardner-Johnson led the New Orleans Saints to sit their star wide out for Monday night’s overtime victory over the Los Angeles Chargers.
Without Thomas in the lineup, the Saints found themselves down 17 points in the second quarter and needed the extra period to emerge victorious over the Chargers.
While Saints head coach Sean Payton declined to elaborate on the nature of Thomas’ suspension, quarterback Drew Brees said that he’s confident the issue will be put behind them.
“I’ve spoken with Mike,” Brees said, via Luke Johnson of NOLA.com. “Mike and I talk a lot, both personally in the locker room, by text message — we’re always communicating. So at the end of the day, Mike has been part of this team, he’s going to be a big part of this team moving forward.
“We had an incident and Sean addressed it and many of the leaders have spoken with Mike as well. We’re going to be all good.”
All Payton said was that he wouldn’t speak further about it until “the time is right” and that he only would speak about players that played in the win over the Chargers. Thomas allegedly punched Gardner-Johnson during a fight in practice and was suspended by the team for the action.
Thomas was questionable to play against Los Angeles anyway due to an ankle injury that forced him to miss the team’s previous three games. Thomas had three catches for 17 yards against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the team’s season opener. New Orleans has their bye this week and Thomas should be expected back in the lineup following the injury and suspension against the Carolina Panthers after the break.