New Orleans Saints
What steps may be taken to improve a redesigned receiving corps that is full of gifted but mostly inexperienced pass catchers?
Naturally, sign the player who has led the NFL in receptions twice.
That’s the least likely scenario, according to oddsmakers, as Buffalo Bills have a good chance of signing veteran wide receiver Michael Thomas if they sign with BetOnline. At +500, the Bills have the second-best chances in the league to sign the two-time All-Pro, only ahead of the Dallas Cowboys at +300.
From a 30,000-foot perspective, the possible signing makes some kind of sense. In the 2024 summer, Buffalo reorganised its receiving group, cutting loose from both Gabriel Davis and longtime Pro Bowler Stefon Diggs to add untested players who, despite their apparent skill, have not produced much as a professional. The three players who are expected to lead the receiving corps are third-year contributor Khalil Shakir, free agent addition Curtis Samuel, and second-round draft pick Keon Coleman. Although all three are excellent, none of them have established themselves as main targets.
The Bills would have a proven target-eater in Thomas, who could theoretically provide quarterback Josh Allen with a solid option. Throughout his illustrious professional career, the wide receiver has caught 565 passes for 6,569 yards and 36 touchdowns. In 2019, he won NFL Offensive Player of the Year after a spectacular 1,725 receiving yard campaign.
Theoretically, they were meant to be together. Proven pass catchers are necessary for Buffalo to complement its great quarterback. A three-time Pro Bowler can sign a summertime free agency contract. It appears to be obvious.
One only needs to use a small amount of critical thinking to begin to discover the holes in the strategy. Despite being unquestionably one of the most successful wide receivers of his generation, Thomas is 31 years old and has a well-established history of recent injuries, which is quite concerning. Over the previous four seasons, he has only played in 20 games because of a variety of lower-body injuries, including a persistent ankle problem that kept him out of action for the entire 2021 season.
Even putting aside the health issues for a moment, Thomas has appeared to be a much different person during the previous two seasons when he has been available. Over the last two seasons, he has only caught 52 passes for 619 yards. Clearly, a number of factors have contributed to this, as the New Orleans Saints haven’t exactly been an offensive powerhouse in recent years, but Thomas hasn’t been as effective as he once was.
It’s also important to keep in mind that Buffalo made deliberate offseason decisions at wide out. The club has a well-defined strategy in place; the decision to bench Diggs indicated a desire to replace him with a younger player as well as a want to distribute the aerial production among more players rather than concentrating the attack on a single target. With Shakir, Samuel, Coleman, and second-year tight end Dalton Kincaid, the team seems to be planning to achieve this; signing a 31-year-old who was averaging about 150 targets per season in his peak goes against the organisation’s present approach.
If Thomas was prepared to accept a team-friendly “prove-it” deal, he might not be a bad low-risk addition, but the Bills will probably be just fine without him. With one of the best signal-callers in the game leading Buffalo’s offence, and a talented receiving corps, the team doesn’t really need a 31-year-old with a history of ankle issues.
