Wide receiver Michael Thomas is one of the most important players for the New Orleans Saints… when he can stay healthy.
Thomas has played in only 10 games for the Saints over the last three seasons and recently reworked his contract to offset the lack of production.
Head coach Dennis Allen, speaking on The Rich Eisen Show, revealed that while Thomas will be limited during offseason team activities, they expect he’ll be ready to go for training camp in the fall.
“Right now, he’s still going through some of the rehab process,” Allen said. “He had some hardware removed out of that foot that he had surgery on this past season. He’s doing really well. He’s working extremely hard. Our anticipation is that he’ll be limited throughout this offseason. But our anticipation is that when we get to training camp, he’ll be good to go.”
Though Allen admitted the Saints would be cautious with how the receiver progresses.
“Now, when we get to training camp, we’re going to make sure that we’re smart with him in terms of getting him back in and getting him back into football shape,” Allen said. “But, look, he came off really kind of two seasons of not really playing a lot. And really had a really nice start to the season last year — it was unfortunate that he got injured when he did because going back, just the opener against Atlanta and our ability to throw contested-ball throws to him in tough situations down there in the red zone, third down, things of that nature — not having him was a big loss to us last year.
“So, our expectation is we’re going to have him back, and we’re going to have him healthy. And we’re looking forward to getting the Mike Thomas that you saw three years ago.”
Thomas appeared in three games last season and finished with 171 yards and three touchdowns.
