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WR Michael "Cantguardmike" Thomas (B1G Champion, National Champion, Pro Bowl, All-Pro, 2019 OPOY, New Orleans Saints)

New Orleans Saints 2018 roster rankings: No. 3 Michael Thomas
Updated Jul 18; Posted Jul 18
Saints wide receiver Michael Thomas on his plans for this year

By Larry Holder

[email protected],

NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune

We're ranking the New Orleans Saints' top players for the seventh consecutive offseason. We'll publish a new player each weekday as we inch closer to training camp.

Seven players from last year's list no longer reside on the team's roster: No. 7 Kenny Vaccaro, No. 9 Willie Snead, No. 10 Zach Strief, No. 11 Adrian Peterson, No. 13 Nick Fairley, No. 14 Delvin Breaux, No. 15 Dannell Ellerbe. And a handful from last year's list didn't make the 2018 version.

That's actually a positive for the Saints.

It's the first time in a few years where I struggled to cut down the list to 20 viable candidates. As opposed to the last couple of offseasons where I nearly couldn't find enough capable players to field a top 20 list.

Predicting Nos. 1 and 2 on the 2018 version should be no brainers. The rest of the list should make for a healthy debate:

No. 3 Michael Thomas

Last year's rank: 3

Fan composite ranking: 3

Season: 3; Age: 25; Height: 6-3; Weight: 212

The pressure to produce landed squarely on Thomas' shoulders once the Saints traded away Brandin Cooks to the Patriots last offseason. Thomas answered every question as to whether or not he could handle being a No. 1 wide receiver in the NFL.

And the answer was a resounding "Yes!"

The 2016 second-round pick followed up his stellar rookie campaign with an even better 2017 season.

Thomas ranked third in the NFL with 104 receptions and placed sixth with 1,245 receiving yards. His receiving touchdowns dropped from nine in 2016 to five in 2017, but that's because the potent running game gobbled up plenty of TDs instead. Thomas did snag two touchdowns in the NFC Divisional playoff loss at Minnesota.

His 196 catches during his first two seasons broke the league record for most receptions in a player's opening two campaigns passing Jarvis Landry.

The prolific production by Thomas finally gave the Saints their first Pro Bowl wide receiver in the Drew Brees era. The secret came out about Thomas after his first season. That didn't stop him in Year 2 and likely won't slow him in Year 3.

https://www.nola.com/saints/index.ssf/2018/07/new_orleans_saints_2018_roster_17.html
 
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Michael Thomas is succeeding by making everything seem 'the same'

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People like to use that phrase, "the same," when discussing the things about him that make the Saints wide receiver great and unique. And it’s not meant that he does everything the same as everyone else. It’s about the level of consistency and evenness to his attitude and level of play.

His intensity during a walkthrough is the same as it is during a game, and his detailed approach to playing the position never lets up.

So when Thomas sends out some tweets like the one he did this week, it doesn’t surprise anyone.

“Game Week!” he wrote. “Y’all going to have to stop playing me after this season (too). I promise.

He kept going, adding in another tweet, “All the friendly (expletive) over. I’m telling you now.”

It comes off like an announcement about how Thomas is going to take his game to a new level. And maybe he is, but it sounds like that is just Mike being Mike.

This is the same guy who wanted to play hard in Pro Bowl practices and brings it every single day during training camp. While that might sound like an announcement about how he’s going to turn it on for the season, those close to Thomas see him already operating at a 10.

“That is the one thing about him — his preparation, his focus, everything, it is consistent,” Payton said. “It’s hard for Mike to have a walk-through just because he’s so wired into his assignment, what he’s doing, how to improve.”

Being the same is the reason he has so much success on the field. Thomas’ intense attention to detail and preparation has allowed him to quickly figure out how to disguise his routes and keep his intentions concealed.

Because he knows defensive backs are trained to look at where the receiver is lined up on every route and glance at his feet to help determine his route, Thomas, who along with former LSU receiver Odell Beckham Jr. are the only players to start their NFL careers with two seasons of 90 catches and 1,000 yards, tries to hide the details and uses his previous routes to set up the next ones.

“Mike doesn’t try to make himself so predictable,” quarterback Drew Brees said. “Mike goes out there and is able to change things up enough and develop fundamentals with each route to where he’s the one dictating to the DB what he’s going to do versus the other way around.”

Entire article: https://www.theadvocate.com/new_orl...al&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=user-share
 
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