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Hold onto your Michael Thomas jersey swaps. Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports reports that the New Orleans Saints star receiver met with head coach Sean Payton to work through the summer’s frustrations, centering on Thomas’ delayed ankle surgery in June. That his availability in doubt for the 2021 season opener, prompting a callout from Payton in his first press conference of training camp. Thomas followed up with his own message on Twitter, but now it appears both sides are working to mend fences.
Robinson cites two sources close to the meeting that expressed optimism about the situation, suggesting Thomas and Payton were able to clear the air. One source told Robinson that, “They had a good talk about [the issues]. I think they both believe it’s not anything that has to go any further than what is already out there. There was some frustration from both viewpoints and that was the point of the meeting.”
He also spoke with several general managers of rival teams across the NFL about potential trade interest in Thomas. And they agreed that now, coming off of an injury and having been benched for a game last season following a fight in practice and social media antics, he wouldn’t return much value to New Orleans — maybe “a package of second- and third-round picks” one of them speculated. In a vacuum, otherwise healthy and eager to help a new team, they speculated Thomas would be worth at least one first rounder, and maybe more.
Anyway: this is a welcome gust of good news after such a tumultuous offseason. The meeting was confirmed by NFL insider Josina Anderson, who added that, “there’s been a desire to mend fences, mitigate the situation from festering [and] to literally just get back to football.”
Here’s hoping Payton and Thomas are on the same page and ready to work once he’s healthy. The sorry state of their receiving corps, doing little to help either of their two new starting quarterbacks, could really use him.
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