The Saints have officially shipped out superstar wide receiver Michael Thomas for wide receiver Van Jefferson and a second round pick. Before we look at the trade at hand, we need to look at the reason for the trade. The Saints before the trade are the oldest team in the league, with a lot of bad contracts that only get worse as time goes on. They had a negative cap space for next season, which meant they couldn’t sign any of their 30 players they are losing or even have the opportunity to franchise tag anyone.
Michael Thomas carried a cap of 13.1M this year, 28.3M in 2023, and 27.5M in 2024. This contract is ridiculous for any player, let alone a 29 year old wide receiver who could lose his superstar status at the end of the season. He also carried a cap penalty of 31M. This is a serious penalty, however, if he was traded it would have been a penalty of 10M this season and 20M next season. After receiving all of this information, coach Burn saw this as the only contract that was feasible to trade in order to get some cap relief.
Thomas was put on the trade block, and immediately after offers came in for him. A few teams were offering just a mid round pick for him, however, it was down to two teams that offered more. A second round pick and a replacement wide receiver was essentially the deal for both teams. The offer that eventually was agreed upon and sent through was the one with the Rams.
The Rams are a win now team, and they wanted a superstar player who can bring them one step closer to getting a superbowl championship. The Saints, given their older players are also a win now team, however they needed to do something about their contract situation given the previous general managers c*** contacts he gave out. The Saints got a younger wide receiver who is now contracted with the team for two more seasons, who can also compete for the top receiver spot on the team. They also got a second round pick, which they desperately needed as they traded away their first last season. This was also a bad decision as the player they picked with the pick has been out all season.
Ultimately, this trade helped both teams, the Rams in the short term and the Saints in the long term. We will see who ultimately won this trade after the season, as any trade that brings in a superbowl championship will be declared the winner, however, that’s not to say that both teams can’t win in the end.
