Saints WR Michael Thomas Out For Season Again After Signing $96 Million Deal In 2019

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New Orleans Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas' injury saga continues.

There was a time just a few years ago that the New Orleans Saints and probably the rest of the NFL viewed Thomas as the league's best wide receiver, or close to it.

Thomas set the NFL record for catches in a season in 2019 with 149 for 1,725 yards and nine touchdowns just after signing a five-year extension to his contract for $96 million. He also led the NFL in receptions in 2018 with 125 for 1,405 yards. He made the Pro Bowl three straight years from 2017-19 after being selected in the first round in 2016 out of Ohio State.

New Orleans Saints receiver Michael Thomas has not played a complete season since 2019 and is expected to miss the rest of this season with a toe injury. (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

After an ankle injury and surgeries on it, Thomas missed most of the 2020 season and all of the 2021 season. After playing in just three games this year, he is expected to miss the rest of the season with a toe injury that sidelined him for the last five games and will require surgery.

The Saints placed him on injured reserve on Wednesday afternoon after first-year coach Dennis Allen had said in recent weeks that his rehabilitation from the injury was progressing well.

"I don't anticipate that he'll be able to return this year," Allen said on a teleconference Thursday.

Thomas has 16 catches for 171 yards and three touchdowns in three games this season. He has played in 10 games over the last three seasons.

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The Saints (3-5) host the Baltimore Ravens (5-3) on Monday night on ESPN.

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Guilbeau joined OutKick as an SEC columnist in September of 2021 after covering LSU and the Saints for 17 years at USA TODAY Louisiana. He has been a national columnist/feature writer since the summer of 2022, covering college football, basketball and baseball with some NFL, NBA, MLB, TV and Movies and general assignment, including hot dog taste tests. A New Orleans native and Mizzou graduate, he has consistently won Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) awards since covering Alabama and Auburn at the Mobile Press-Register (1993-98) and LSU and the Saints at the Baton Rouge Advocate (1998-2004). In 2021, Guilbeau won an FWAA 1st for a game feature, placed in APSE Beat Writing, Breaking News and Explanatory, and won Beat Writer of the Year from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association (LSWA). He won an FWAA columnist 1st in 2017 and was FWAA's top overall winner in 2016 with 1st in game story, 2nd in columns, and features honorable mention. Guilbeau completed a book in 2022 about LSU's five-time national champion coach - "Everything Matters In Baseball: The Skip Bertman Story" - that is available at www.acadianhouse.com, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble outlets. He lives in Baton Rouge with his wife, the former Michelle Millhollon of Thibodaux who previously covered politics for the Baton Rouge Advocate and is a communications director.