Michael Thomas’ career with the Saints could be coming to an end this offseason.
According to ESPN’s Field Yates, the Saints finalized a restructured contract with Thomas on Friday.
Thomas is under contract with the Saints through the 2024 season. Under the revised deal, his base salary for 2023 has been reduced from $15.5 million to $1.165 million.
However, Thomas’ contract now has a $31.755 million roster bonus for the 2024 league year. It reportedly becomes fully guaranteed on the third day of the 2023 league year.
While there’s no guarantee the Saints will move on from Thomas, the team has to make a decision by March 17 of this year.
This restructured contract ultimately gives the Saints flexibility while opening the door for Thomas to get a fresh start elsewhere.
With his salary reduced, the team has over $14M in additional cap flexibility that will be critical for a franchise currently projected to be tens of millions of dollars over the cap. Any release of Thomas will result in a total dead-cap charge of close to $26M.
In 2019, Thomas was considered the best wide receiver in the game. Since then, he has dealt with a plethora of injuries.
The Saints have roughly two months to figure out how they want to handle Thomas’ contract situation.