Philadelphia Eagles: Don’t expect a spring Michael Thomas trade

The New Orleans Saints are in a weird spot at the moment.

With Sean Payton retired, Drew Brees doing PointsBets ads, and Jameis Winston coming off of a torn ACL, new head coach Dennis Allen, who served as the team’s defensive coordinator from 2015-21, will surely use the 2022 NFL season as one for re-tooling, especially since his team is already $75 million over the salary cap according to Over The Cap.

There’s no doubt about it; the Saints are going to look a bit different in 2022 than the previous decade and will surely have to say goodbye to more than a few of the players that have become pillars of the franchise.

Could the Philadelphia Eagles benefit from the Saints’ misfortune? You bet, New Orleans will likely be looking to trade more than a few players before the season opens up, but barring a crazy offer, one of those players probably won’t be Michael Thomas, as it makes very little sense for the franchise to move off of their premier wide receiver given his contractual situation.

Thomas’ contract is borderline untradeable this spring, Philadelphia Eagles fans.

On Friday, February 18th, Michael Ginnitti broke down for Spotrac how the New Orleans Saints could free up $100 million in cap space this offseason and go from deeply in debt to players in free agency.

Some of the moves described by Ginnitti were fairly obvious – release Bradley Roby, restructure or release Malcolm Jenkins, convert Marshon Lattimore‘s $9.1 million salary and $15 million roster bonus to a signing bonus, etc. – but the biggest question the Saints had to answer heading into 2022 was what to do with the team’s two-time All-Pro Michael Thomas, who has a massive $24.7 million cap number heading into the regular season.

By Ginnitti’s estimation, the Saints have four options when it comes to Thomas this spring: Either 1. Pay his $24.7 million cap hit for the 2022 season and make him easier to move in 2023, 2. Restructure his contract to free up $11.9 million via two future void years, 3. Trade him pre-June 1st and save a “measly $2 million,” or 4. Trade him after June 1st to free up $15.35 million.

Confusing? Sort of, I would highly recommend reading Ginnitti’s whole piece here, but to put it plainly, if the Eagles want to trade for Thomas, it would have to happen this summer, as the Saints have very little financial incentive to trade Thomas now, as it would do very little to assist their current cap situation.

Now granted, as there ways to work around that? Sure, Thomas could do a restructure and trade of some sort. Alternatively, could the Philadelphia Eagles offer up a fantastic package to secure Thomas’ services that the Saints just can’t turn down? That’s possible too, if Howie Roseman falls in love with the supremely talented Ohio State product, he has the requisite assets needed to get a deal done, but it takes two to tango, and for the Saints to move on from Thomas now, before he turns 30, they have to take on a pretty nice package to get a deal done.

Could Thomas be on the move next month? Sure, anything is possible. Will he get moved next month? No, I would assume not.

Normally, when a team is $75 million over the cap and say goodbye to their Super Bowl-winning quarterback and head coach in subsequent offseasons, it spells a rebuild in some way, shape, or form. The Philadelphia Eagles had to say goodbye to players like Jalen Mills, Malik Jackson, and Duke Riley to help ease the burden of the dead money left by the Carson Wentz trade, and while they are in a much better place now, they still have $22 million committed to the cap for players who are no longer on the roster. Could the team make a big swing for a household name wide receiver? Sure, but it probably won’t be Michael Thomas, at least not during the spring.