The amount of hype, adoration, and hope being sent in the direction of the Saints dynamic sophomore wide receiver is incredible. Michael Thomas turned in one of the best rookie years a wide receiver has ever had in the NFL with 92 catches for 1137 yards and 9 TD’s. Under any metric, and in any circumstance that is a VERY good season for a wide receiver, and it’s made all the more impressive as Thomas spent most of the year ‘technically’ the #2 wide out on the team and in an offense that is built around spreading the ball around. Because of his historic rookie year many fans have gone so far as to claim Michael Thomas could become a top 5 receiver in the NFL as soon as this season, and the crazy thing is that Thomas very well may have that chance. It’s of course a very small chance because of just how good the top 5 wide receivers in the league are, and Thomas hasn’t yet proven he can be the catalyst behind the offense, but the ball is in his very capable hands to answer that final question in just a few short months.
Those of you who read my work frequently are aware by now that I generally try not to get too deep into the X and O side of football because I both mixup terminology constantly (which just doesn’t make for good writing), and I prefer to talk in broader sense that is easier to communicate. Fortunately for me my friend John Sigler who writes for Canal Street Chronicles recently wrote a fantastic article talking about some of the more technical aspects of Michael Thomas’s game. With that said let’s get into the meat of things and take a look into what could possibly make Michael Thomas the best wide receiver to ever wear a Saints uniform.
The Competition:
If you want to be known as the best, then you have to go up against the best. Michael Thomas only really has two receivers he needs to beat out to be the best receiver in team history. Joe Horn and Marques Colston. Horn and Colston are far and away the two best receivers in team history and in order for Thomas to pass them he will need to achieve the level the two of them reached in being not only explosive, but consistent. Consistency is what separates great players from the good ones, and Horn and Colston were consistently effective even though they did things in very different ways.
Horn was an explosive playmaker who could flip a game on its head in a single play and who scared defenses all on his own. Part of what made Horn great was the ability to produce and produce consistently despite not having tremendous QB play around him and being one of the main focuses of the defense. For 7 years Joe Horn was a major part of the Saints offense and has earned the distinction as one of the greatest players at his position in team history.
Marques Colston was in almost every way the polar opposite of Joe Horn. While Horn was an explosive playmaker who could break open a game in a single play, Colston was a tough and physical receiver who dominated the seems. While Horn worked the outside of the field, Colston dominated the interior and acted as the incredibly reliable and consistent security blanket of Saints QB Drew Brees. The ‘quiet storm’ was the opposite of ‘hollywood’ Joe Horn in every aspect on the field. Colston was the quiet, reserved, never flashy player who just produced year in, and year out, while Horn was a bombastic playmaker who had fun and was as known for his flamboyance as his production. The one thing they had in common was they were fantastic contributors for the Saints in their respective eras.
How Thomas can set himself apart:
The biggest reason that I believe Michael Thomas has the ability to outshine both Marques Colston and Joe Horn as the greatest receiver in team history is because in many ways he’s the amalgamation of the two players. Thomas possesses the incredible hands, body control, and toughness that defined Colston’s entire career, yet also has enough quickness, fluidity, and the natural instincts that determine whether a player is good after the catch or not. Thomas showed an ability to make big plays in college, and more importantly an ability to make ‘something out of nothing’ and turn a short passing play (curl route, slant, screen, etc) into a much bigger play by using his body control, strength, and shiftiness to navigate the defense and pickup extra yards.
Thomas has shown he has the potential to do both, but one part of his game he did not really show as a rookie was the ability to work down the field and make the ‘big play’. Thomas wasn’t a threat to rip off a 40, 50, 60 yard play and that is the element he will need to add if he wants to make a run at being the best receiver in team history. Thomas has the speed (ran 4.4-4.5), runs great routes, has tremendous hands, and after adding what was reported as another 10 pounds of muscle going into his second season, he should have the ability to break away and open things up down the field.
If Michael Thomas can add the down the field element to his game and become a complete weapon as a receiver he will become virtually indefensible. As outline in John’s article (and readily apparent to anyone who watched him last year) Michael Thomas was already incredibly difficult to defend just as a rookie in the intermediate areas of the field. He has the big body of a Marques Colston, the hands, body control, and chemistry with the quarterback to become the reliable first down machine Colston was, but he also has the ability to be the swagger-licious (and yes this is me TRYING to kill that word) explosive playmaker the offense needs.
With both elements to his game in full bloom Thomas could not only challenge Horn’s team record of 1399 yards and 11 TD’s in a season (the best statistical season a Saints wide receiver ever had), but could become a player who produces comparable numbers year in and year out, which is something neither Horn nor Colston were ever able to do. The potential of this kid is absolute through the roof and he reminds me a lot of Brandon Marshal in a lot of ways, and that’s an incredible compliment. If Thomas can live up to his potential he can truly become not only one of the league’s best players, but also one of the absolute best players in Saints franchise history.
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