METAIRIE, La. “New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas is likely to have surgery on his broken deltoid and other injured ankle ligaments that have plagued him all season,” a source told Adam Schefter of ESPN on Tuesday.
Thomas suffered an ankle injury for the first time in the final minutes of week 1 and missed a total of nine games in the regular season. But the source said he knew it was probably Drew Brees last season and did not want to miss trying to win a Super Bowl with him.
Thomas would often not practice all week, but would still play in games, far less than 100% and with pain medication, the source said. The coaches told him that even with the same injuries, he was much better off with him than without him.
Thomas went to the injured reserve in weeks 15-17 to try to get as healthy as possible for the playoffs. He returned with five catches for 73 yards and his first touchdown of the season in the wild-card playoff victory over the Chicago Bears. However, he had zero catches on four targets in the divisional round of the playoffs lost in Tampa Bay – including a touchdown in which his knee was ruled out of bounds.
Thomas also missed weeks 2-8 after first suffering an injury, then was disciplined for a match for a practical altercation that punched teammate CJ Gardner-Johnson and then suffered a basket injury. during recovery.
He finished the regular season with 40 catches for 438 yards and zero touchdowns in seven games – just one season after setting the NFL record of 149 catches in 2019. However, he had two games with nine catches. and over 100 yards receiving during Taysom Hill’s four-game stint at QB, while Brees was sidelined by his own injuries.
Thomas’ 510 career receptions are at most one player in the first five seasons of his NFL career.