As training camp approaches, the long-running saga of Michael Thomas' ankle health will be at center stage.
The star WR has stoked optimism with offseason workout videos showing a progressively expanding workload, but not everyone is convinced. Enter Dr. David Chao, an orthopedic surgeon and longtime head doctor for NFL teams.
"I’m not pretending to know all, but by the videos of his workouts that he’s posted, we can see a hitch in his gait," Chao said on SportsTalk this week. "I don’t think the ankle is 100% yet, and this was ahead of minicamp.”
Listen to the full interview with David Chao and more insight into key Saints injuries in the player above. Can't see the embed? Click here.
Chao, who has not examined the Saints WR personally, is a contributor at SICscore.com, which stands for Sports Injury Central. The site attributes a score to each player coming off an injury to assess what can be expected of them in the upcoming season. The site has Thomas pinned in the low 60s after the ankle injury that cost him a majority of the 2020 season and the entirety of the 2021 season.
"Not that he can’t play, but at least the way that he’s moving around, he doesn’t seem like he’s there yet," Chao continued.
The WR was at the facility for rehab during OTAs and minicamp, and new head coach Dennis Allen indicated the plan all along has been for a return at the full training camp later this month. It remains unknown if Thomas will be on the field when practices begin on July 27, as well as what level of involvement he will have when he does get on the field.
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Thomas suffered an ankle injury during Week 1 of the 2020 season late in a win over the Tampa Bay Bucs. He missed the next 8 weeks, then returned for six games before going back on IR. Thomas returned in the playoffs but didn't appear himself on that injured ankle, eventually going without a catch for the first time in his career during a playoff loss to that same Bucs team. The saga continued into the next season, with questions swirling around the decision to not have surgery immediately following the season. Still, it was hopeful he would return at some point in 2021 before a setback cost him the remainder of that season.
So what level of Michael Thomas will the Saints be looking at this time around, relative to the world-beating version that set a new NFL record with 149 receptions in 2019? The WR has shared several videos showing his work, starting with straight-line running at the facility under the caption "talk soon."
He's also shared clips of some route-running with progressive complexity.
While there's still a long way to go, Chao isn't convinced the Thomas we're seeing is fully in form, particularly if you're considering him with an early-round pick in fantasy drafts.
"For an average football player, he did fantastic. He wasn’t an average football player -- and now, I’m not saying he’s average -- but I don’t think that’s Michael Thomas, ... it just doesn’t seem like he’s quite there yet," Chao said. "Maybe he still can get there, but this is where from let’s say a season-long fantasy perspective, medically I’d have to downgrade him."
One way or another the Saints have worked hard to add pieces in the WR room around him, with the addition of first-round pick Chris Olave and veteran Jarvis Landry in free agency. Thomas and the rest of the veterans are scheduled to report to camp on July 26, at which point he can finally begin to prove the doctors wrong on his comeback tour.
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