The New Orleans Saints reached a contract agreement with wide receiver Michael Thomas on Wednesday, inking him to a deal to the tune of $100 million over five years. And Thomas, a 2018 first-team All-Pro, earned every penny of it. He’s the rare player whose efficiency doesn’t drop when his volume of opportunities increases. Here’s eleven stats proving he is one of the best receivers in the NFL today.
1. Thomas caught 85% of his targets in 2018, an NFL record
The catch rate Thomas posted last season wasn’t just his career-best; it’s the best recorded in the NFL since Wes Welker logged 77.2% with the New England Patriots back in 2007. Even more impressive, he started off the season by catching 38 of 40 passes (95%) in his first three games — and when he regressed from that, he still hit a historic-best catch rate. Thomas receives as many targets as anyone else in the league, and he’s a sure thing to come down with the ball when it’s sent his way.
2. Thomas has dropped just 2.76% of his career targets
Pro Football Focus charting has credited Thomas with some of the best hands in the league. It’s not enough that he often (or almost always) reels in catchable passes. He largely plays mistake-free football, and can be trusted to not put the ball on the ground when quarterback Drew Brees puts the game in his hands. Thomas has dropped just 12 of his 448 career opportunities, a rate that trails only Seattle Seahawks star Tyler Lockett — who has logged less than half as many targets (201) as Thomas.
3. Thomas beat man-coverage 82.8% of the time in 2018
He’s carried the nickname of “Can’t Guard Mike” since his first practice with the Ohio State Buckeyes, and it’s still his Twitter handle. And Thomas proves it every time he steps on the field. Matt Harmon of Yahoo! Sports spends his offseason sample game tape from dozens of the best receivers in football, and this year found that nobody was more successful against physical man-coverage more often than Thomas was last year. Good luck guarding someone who’s basically always open.
4. Thomas led the NFL in receptions in 2018, with 125 catches
This number wasn’t just the best mark in the league last year; it’s now written down in the franchise record books as the most catches of any receiver in Saints history. Thomas caught more passes in a single season than Saints legends like Marques Colston, Joe Horn, Jimmy Graham, and Eric Martin, not to mention every single one of his peers in the NFL last season. The players who came closest to matching his pace were Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz (116 catches) and the other receiver named first-team All-Pro, Houston Texans superstar DeAndre Hopkins (115).
5. Thomas set the Saints single-season record with 1,405 yards
No Saints player ever broke the 1,400 receiving-yards mark until Thomas did it in 2018. And it wasn’t for lack of trying; Horn came just a yard shy of it (1,399) back in 2004. Horn also owns four of the six best single-season numbers in Saints history, with Jimmy Graham’s breakout 2011 season (1,310 yards) ranking fifth-best in the team record books. But Thomas is the one standing at the top of the mountain.
6. Thomas has caught 321 passes through his first three years
It didn’t take long for Brees to realize Thomas is someone he can trust. By mid-November of last year, Thomas had already shattered a record previously set by NFL superstars Odell Beckham Jr., Randy Moss, and Jerry Rice. Each of them raised the bar with growing numbers of receptions through their first 40 games, with Beckham posting an unheard-of 266. Then along came Thomas, who hit 273 without breaking stride. Considering their first three years combined, Thomas broke the record tied by former LSU Tigers teammates Beckham and Jarvis Landry (288 each).
7. Thomas accounted for 33.7% of the Saints receiving yardage
The Saints didn’t really have any other big threats in the passing game at receiver, and it showed. Thomas caught nearly 1,000 yards more than the next-best wideout on the roster (rookie Tre’Quan Smith, at 427). New Orleans had to funnel the ball his way just to move the chains at times, and Thomas always delivered despite being the biggest priority to stop for opposing defenses.
8. Through three years, Thomas has 3,787 receiving yards
That’s more than half as many as all of the receivers picked ahead of him back in 2016: Corey Coleman (789), Will Fuller (1,561), Josh Doctson (1,100), Laquon Treadwell (517), and Sterling Shepard (2,286), which combined equals 6,253 yards. In other words, Thomas alone has posted 60.6% of the yardage everybody drafted ahead of him put up, altogether.
9. Thomas ranks ninth in Saints history in career receiving yards
He’s only been in the league for three years, but Thomas is already one of the most-prolific receivers in Saints history. His 3,787 receiving yards rank ninth-best in the team record books, and a 1,000-yard season will catapult him up into the No. 5 spot. That would surpass Jimmy Graham, and trail just Marques Colston, Eric Martin, Joe Horn, and Danny Abramowicz. There’s no reason Thomas shouldn’t take that top spot someday.
10. Thomas already has more Saints catches than Reggie Bush
It may feel odd to compare apples to oranges (or running backs to receivers), but Bush was very much a key part of the passing game in New Orleans. And his 294 career receptions, amassed from 2006 to 2010, in black and gold speak to that. But Thomas has already leapfrogged him with 321 catches. If Thomas keeps up his pace and reels in another 107 passes this year, he’ll climb the ranks to place ahead of some other familiar names like Pierre Thomas (327), Lance Moore (346), and Jimmy Graham (386).
11. Thomas has missed just one game in three years
He’s as durable as they come, having been held out of one game in his rookie year as a precaution. Since then, Thomas has rarely left the field, and was out there nearly as often (929 offensive snaps) as Brees was (979) in 2018. Consistency is a point of pride for Thomas, and his intense practice demeanor was something missed by teammates during his holdout. Now, he’ll be right back in the mix.
