Saints receiver Michael Thomas has faced a slew of injuries that have limited him to just 10 games over the past three seasons.
But after Thomas re-worked his contract to stick with New Orleans on a one-year deal, the club is anticipating he’ll at least be healthy for the summer.
Head coach Dennis Allen said last week that while Thomas may be limited during the offseason program, he should be able to participate fully in training camp.
“Right now, he’s still going through some of the rehab process,” Allen said during an interview on the Rich Eisen Show last week. “He had some hardware removed out of that foot that he had surgery on this past season. He’s doing really well. He’s working extremely hard. Our anticipation is that he’ll be limited throughout this offseason. But our anticipation is that when we get to training camp, he’ll be good to go.”
Thomas, 30, played just three games last year but was certainly productive. He caught 15 passes for 171 yards with three touchdowns.
But then he was ultimately shut down for the rest of the season.
That’s part of why the Saints will be cautious in bringing him along during the summer.
“Now, when we get to training camp, we’re going to make sure that we’re smart with him in terms of getting him back in and getting him back into football shape,” Allen said. “But, look, he came off really kind of two seasons of not really playing a lot. And really had a really nice start to the season last year — it was unfortunate that he got injured when he did because going back, just the opener against Atlanta and our ability to throw contested-ball throws to him in tough situations down there in the red zone, third down, things of that nature — not having him was a big loss to us last year.
“So, our expectation is we’re going to have him back and we’re going to have him healthy. And we’re looking forward to getting the Mike Thomas that you saw three years ago.”
Thomas’ last healthy season was in 2019, when he was the AP offensive player of the year after catching 149 passes for 1,725 yards with nine touchdowns.