Michael Thomas 2020 Outlook

[Zekepeak86 1,582]

17 minutes ago, Stones4Ship said:

Is this guy playing this week? I thought I got a steal at the end of the 1st round. What a disappointment so far!

MICHAEL THOMASWR, NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

Saints coach Sean Payton said that there will be no further team discipline for Michael Thomas.

Thomas was held out of Week 5 for "disciplinary reasons." He's over a month removed from a high-ankle sprain and should be healthy coming off the Saints' bye. Payton wouldn't commit to Thomas returning for Sunday's game with the Panthers, but he should play barring a setback.

SOURCE: neworleanssaints.com

Oct 21, 2020, 11:44 AM ET

 

He is playing. I am ready for the 20 points.

[EaglesRocker97 211]

7 minutes ago, Zekepeak86 said:

 

He is playing. I am ready for the 20 points.

 

I can't remember an elite WR ever truly regaining their form in the middle of the season with a high-ankle sprain. There's not enough time in the season for that kind of injury to fully heal. Good luck, though.

Edited October 21, 2020 by EaglesRocker97

[AnchorDown 617]

2 hours ago, Funkenstein said:

Generational talent?  Is that what I read on the previous page? Lol

Good player but he's not jerry rice. Stop it.

 

Michael Thomas has played four full seasons in the NFL. Let's throw out their rookie seasons where you might say MT had the advantage over Rice starting more games, and to have it a more apples-to-apples comparison, let's throw out 1987 for Rice, who only played 12 games (but still scored 22 TDs...ridiculous!)

MT average over the last three seasons: 126 rec, 1458 yds, 7.67 tds ; 317.8 PPR fantasy pts/yr

Rice average over seasons 86, 88, 89 (first three seasons minus rookie year and injured year in '88): 77 rec, 1453 yds, 13.67 tds ; 304.3 PPR fantasy pts/yr

In other words, MT has outperformed Rice so far in his career. The averages work out very similarly if you want to throw out 89 and include 87 instead. MT gets a lot more receptions, a lot less TDs, but for our fantasy purposes he is essentially Jerry Rice through 4 years. By no means am I saying that MT is going to have the career in terms of longevity and consistent performance that Rice had (that's what separates Rice as the best of all time), but we also can't discount MT getting there by simple virtue of the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity yet.

From the data we have available to us, having MT on your team in year 5 of his young career looks a lot like what owing Jerry Rice might have been like in year 5.

Generational talent is not a misnomer when we are talking about Michael Thomas. Seems a lot of people in here take for granted just how exceptional he has been in his first four years in the league. But I understand fantasy owners, like people in general, tend to be swayed by recency bias and a "What have you done for me lately?" mentality.

We are talking about a guy that has reached levels of performance that only a few players in the NFL have ever reached. Great to see so many people skeptical of what this guy can do, as if an ankle sprain is going to derail his career and turn him from the top WR in the league for multiple years running into a middling WR2. That should give a lot of confidence to people who see the numbers here, don't own MT in a league, and want to make an offer.

[ajs723 3,605]

3 minutes ago, AnchorDown said:

 

Michael Thomas has played four full seasons in the NFL. Let's throw out their rookie seasons where you might say MT had the advantage over Rice starting more games, and to have it a more apples-to-apples comparison, let's throw out 1987 for Rice, who only played 12 games (but still scored 22 TDs...ridiculous!)

MT average over the last three seasons: 126 rec, 1458 yds, 7.67 tds ; 317.8 PPR fantasy pts/yr

Rice average over seasons 86, 88, 89 (first three seasons minus rookie year and injured year in '88): 77 rec, 1453 yds, 13.67 tds ; 304.3 PPR fantasy pts/yr

In other words, MT has outperformed Rice so far in his career. The averages work out very similarly if you want to throw out 89 and include 87 instead. MT gets a lot more receptions, a lot less TDs, but for our fantasy purposes he is essentially Jerry Rice through 4 years. By no means am I saying that MT is going to have the career in terms of longevity and consistent performance that Rice had (that's what separates Rice as the best of all time), but we also can't discount MT getting there by simple virtue of the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity yet.

From the data we have available to us, having MT on your team in year 5 of his young career looks a lot like what owing Jerry Rice might have been like in year 5.

Generational talent is not a misnomer when we are talking about Michael Thomas. Seems a lot of people in here take for granted just how exceptional he has been in his first four years in the league. But I understand fantasy owners, like people in general, tend to be swayed by recency bias and a "What have you done for me lately?" mentality.

We are talking about a guy that has reached levels of performance that only a few players in the NFL have ever reached. Great to see so many people skeptical of what this guy can do, as if an ankle sprain is going to derail his career and turn him from the top WR in the league for multiple years running into a middling WR2. That should give a lot of confidence to people who see the numbers here, don't own MT in a league, and want to make an offer.

It's two different conversations. If we're talking about the greatest real life WRs in the history of the NFL, I don't think MT is anywhere near that conversation. 

However, if we're talking about the greatest fantasy football WR of all time, it's MT, and I'm not sure it's close. His fantasy production so far in his career has been in another stratosphere. 

[JacobThunder15 321]

5 minutes ago, AnchorDown said:

 

Michael Thomas has played four full seasons in the NFL. Let's throw out their rookie seasons where you might say MT had the advantage over Rice starting more games, and to have it a more apples-to-apples comparison, let's throw out 1987 for Rice, who only played 12 games (but still scored 22 TDs...ridiculous!)

MT average over the last three seasons: 126 rec, 1458 yds, 7.67 tds ; 317.8 PPR fantasy pts/yr

Rice average over seasons 86, 88, 89 (first three seasons minus rookie year and injured year in '88): 77 rec, 1453 yds, 13.67 tds ; 304.3 PPR fantasy pts/yr

In other words, MT has outperformed Rice so far in his career. The averages work out very similarly if you want to throw out 89 and include 87 instead. MT gets a lot more receptions, a lot less TDs, but for our fantasy purposes he is essentially Jerry Rice through 4 years. By no means am I saying that MT is going to have the career in terms of longevity and consistent performance that Rice had (that's what separates Rice as the best of all time), but we also can't discount MT getting there by simple virtue of the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity yet.

From the data we have available to us, having MT on your team in year 5 of his young career looks a lot like what owing Jerry Rice might have been like in year 5.

Generational talent is not a misnomer when we are talking about Michael Thomas. Seems a lot of people in here take for granted just how exceptional he has been in his first four years in the league. But I understand fantasy owners, like people in general, tend to be swayed by recency bias and a "What have you done for me lately?" mentality.

We are talking about a guy that has reached levels of performance that only a few players in the NFL have ever reached. Great to see so many people skeptical of what this guy can do, as if an ankle sprain is going to derail his career and turn him from the top WR in the league for multiple years running into a middling WR2. That should give a lot of confidence to people who see the numbers here, don't own MT in a league, and want to make an offer.

Jerry Rice also had a preseason.

[Dirty Little Birdie 1,174]

3 minutes ago, ajs723 said:

It's two different conversations. If we're talking about the greatest real life WRs in the history of the NFL, I don't think MT is anywhere near that conversation. 

However, if we're talking about the greatest fantasy football WR of all time, it's MT, and I'm not sure it's close. His fantasy production so far in his career has been in another stratosphere. 

huh? i'm assuming you're comment here was solely based on the fact that Thomas has only been in the league for 4 years. MT is clearly on the fast track to being one of the best (if not the best) to ever play the WR position. 

[ajs723 3,605]

Just now, Dirty Little Birdie said:

huh? i'm assuming you're comment here was solely based on the fact that Thomas has only been in the league for 4 years. MT is clearly on the fast track to being one of the best (if not the best) to ever play the WR position. 

That's a big part of it, but it's more than that. Joe Flacco is going to end up being one of the greatest QBs of all time, statistically. You can't compare football counting stats across generations. MT is a superstar, but I'm not sure he's one of the greatest of all time. I just can't go there yet. Statistically, yes. According to actual real life football, I don't think so.

[EaglesRocker97 211]

17 minutes ago, AnchorDown said:

 

Michael Thomas has played four full seasons in the NFL. Let's throw out their rookie seasons where you might say MT had the advantage over Rice starting more games, and to have it a more apples-to-apples comparison, let's throw out 1987 for Rice, who only played 12 games (but still scored 22 TDs...ridiculous!)

MT average over the last three seasons: 126 rec, 1458 yds, 7.67 tds ; 317.8 PPR fantasy pts/yr

Rice average over seasons 86, 88, 89 (first three seasons minus rookie year and injured year in '88): 77 rec, 1453 yds, 13.67 tds ; 304.3 PPR fantasy pts/yr

In other words, MT has outperformed Rice so far in his career. The averages work out very similarly if you want to throw out 89 and include 87 instead. MT gets a lot more receptions, a lot less TDs, but for our fantasy purposes he is essentially Jerry Rice through 4 years. By no means am I saying that MT is going to have the career in terms of longevity and consistent performance that Rice had (that's what separates Rice as the best of all time), but we also can't discount MT getting there by simple virtue of the fact that he hasn't had the opportunity yet.

From the data we have available to us, having MT on your team in year 5 of his young career looks a lot like what owing Jerry Rice might have been like in year 5.

Rice and MT played in completely different eras. DBs were actually allowed to get physical with WRs and guys got regularly destroyed "going over the middle" as we used to say. Now you can hardly breathe on them without the flag being thrown. I'm not saying MT is not great, but comparing WR stats in a vacuum between guys who played 30-40 years apart doesn't really paint the full picture. Of course, in terms of fantasy, a point is a point.

[Dirty Little Birdie 1,174]

14 minutes ago, ajs723 said:

That's a big part of it, but it's more than that. Joe Flacco is going to end up being one of the greatest QBs of all time, statistically. You can't compare football counting stats across generations. MT is a superstar, but I'm not sure he's one of the greatest of all time. I just can't go there yet. Statistically, yes. According to actual real life football, I don't think so.

i think you and I may be living in two different worlds at this point. lol.

As far as what you think about MT - to each their own. All I'm saying is that based many factors, including statistics and my very own eye test, MT is clearly one of the best WRs I've ever seen and I'm 35. To say that he's "no where near" the conversation of being one of the best WR ever is silly. The ONLY arguments that can be made here IMO are the lack of career longevity up until now and, like the above poster made mention to, the league is different now with all the refs quick to throw the flag for PI. Both good arguments but neither can take away from what we've seen him do up until now. 

Edited October 21, 2020 by Dirty Little Birdie

[ajs723 3,605]

12 minutes ago, Dirty Little Birdie said:

i think you and I may be living in two different worlds at this point. lol.

It's not my opinion, Flacco is literally going to end his career as a top 20 NFL passing yards leader of all time. Do I think Flacco is one of the 20 greatest QBs to ever play, of course not! The point is that players in this era are putting up video game numbers left and right, so it's not fair to compare stats. 

I do think that MT is a great, great WR. He could certainly get into the conversation if he keeps this up. 

[RunCMC 2,605]

12 minutes ago, Dirty Little Birdie said:

i think you and I may be living in two different worlds at this point. lol.

As far as what you think about MT - to each their own. All I'm saying is that based many factors, including statistics and my very own eye test, MT is clearly one of the best WRs I've ever seen and I'm 35. To say that he's "no where near" the conversation of being one of the best WR ever is silly. The ONLY arguments that can be made here IMO are the lack of career longevity up until now and, like the above poster made mention to, the league is different now with all the refs quick to throw the flag for PI. Both good arguments but neither can take away from what we've seen him do up until now. 

 

MT13 is the future goat. He's that good.

I know alot of times we say it's the QB who makes the wideout relevant.

But in Michael Thomas's case, it's the exact opposite. 

+ Brees has been mediocre for awhile now .. alot of his passing yards come from YAC established by Thomas & Kamara. 

[ajs723 3,605]

31 minutes ago, RunCMC said:

 

MT13 is the future goat. He's that good.

I know alot of times we say it's the QB who makes the wideout relevant.

But in Michael Thomas's case, it's the exact opposite. 

+ Brees has been mediocre for awhile now .. alot of his passing yards come from YAC established by Thomas & Kamara. 

As a dynasty owner. I hope you're right!

[straightfire118 84]

43 minutes ago, ajs723 said:

It's not my opinion, Flacco is literally going to end his career as a top 20 NFL passing yards leader of all time. Do I think Flacco is one of the 20 greatest QBs to ever play, of course not! The point is that players in this era are putting up video game numbers left and right, so it's not fair to compare stats. 

I do think that MT is a great, great WR. He could certainly get into the conversation if he keeps this up. 

Exactly completely different era’s. Are people really comparing Jerry Rice to Slant boy????? 😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂😂😂😂

Just laughable, MT can’t hold Rice’s jock strap.

[FitzMagic 4,260]

Apparently, no further discipline for Slant Boy Mike, according to the conversation at the 4:00 mark. They'll see how he progresses but he wouldn't commit to saying he would play for sure. But we all know he's playing.

https://www.neworleanssaints.com/audio/saints-conference-call-sean-payton-on-october-21-2020

[Bish0p 133]

1 hour ago, Dirty Little Birdie said:

huh? i'm assuming you're comment here was solely based on the fact that Thomas has only been in the league for 4 years. MT is clearly on the fast track to being one of the best (if not the best) to ever play the WR position. 

 

Lmao, cool your jets, it's a small sample size, and with his piss poor attitude, I see his career trajectory taking the same path as OBJ in a few years.  

[itslarry 110]

3 hours ago, JacobThunder15 said:

Jerry Rice also had a preseason.

And almost double to TDs on significantly less receptions, yet the same yards. Can you imagine if Rice caught 125 balls a season?!

 

[Flyman75 5,303]

4 minutes ago, itslarry said:

And almost double to TDs on significantly less receptions, yet the same yards. Can you imagine if Rice caught 125 balls a season?!

 

 

Can you imagine of Rice was reincarnated today as a 23 year old? 

[Bastardo! 1,476]

 MICHAEL THOMAS: MISSES OPEN PORTION OF PRACTICE

PUBLISHED WED OCT 21 3:41:57 P.M. CT 2020

(RotoWire) Thomas (ankle) didn't participate in the part of Wednesday's practice open to the media, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports. Analysis: Underhill noted Thomas was present at the start of the session, but he eventually left the field with a member of the Saints' training staff. Earlier Wednesday, coach Sean Payton told Luke Johnson of The New Orleans Times-Picayune that the Saints are no longer disciplining Thomas, but he was unsure whether the wide receiver will be available for Sunday's game against the Panthers. It appears Thomas' left ankle still may be bothering him, but confirmation likely won't come until the release of Wednesday's injury report.

[Gootz 131]

2 minutes ago, Bastardo! said:

 MICHAEL THOMAS: MISSES OPEN PORTION OF PRACTICE

PUBLISHED WED OCT 21 3:41:57 P.M. CT 2020

(RotoWire) Thomas (ankle) didn't participate in the part of Wednesday's practice open to the media, Nick Underhill of NewOrleans.Football reports. Analysis: Underhill noted Thomas was present at the start of the session, but he eventually left the field with a member of the Saints' training staff. Earlier Wednesday, coach Sean Payton told Luke Johnson of The New Orleans Times-Picayune that the Saints are no longer disciplining Thomas, but he was unsure whether the wide receiver will be available for Sunday's game against the Panthers. It appears Thomas' left ankle still may be bothering him, but confirmation likely won't come until the release of Wednesday's injury report.

[nosh0t 158]

1 minute ago, Gootz said:

 

Ankle or coaching staff??? I still think he plays this week. 

[SyNdicateZ 1,509]

Im close to trading this bum. 

[Islanderman 251]

He did mention last week that he had a setback.  Wondering if he reinjured it.

[harck 478]

High ankle sprains... plague of the NFL.

[sdlengua 92]

Not sure why I get the feeling we're getting into an AJ Green situation here. Last year I had AJ and all year long he was about ready to play but never did. A little different since MT did play one game but starting to get the feeling he and the team are splitsville. Maybe it's just me and my fear that my 'bargain' pick in the 2nd round is not going to see the field this week.

[ColoWrex 1,951]