After three seasons with just 10 total games played, it's no surprise that Michael Thomas has his share of doubters.
The Saints star WR has a message for them: Thank you for the motivation.
“I kind of just fuel off the doubt," Thomas said after fully participating in his 6th practice of camp. "People might call it call it crazy ... bt some people say if you don’t have any haters, you ain’t poppin'. I mean, I really use it as fuel for me like, if you doubt me, first off, you’re probably not in my shoes and I’m just going to go harder to prove you harder."
It's nothing new for Thomas, though the questions have changed over the years. The intensity with which he approaches the game, and the chip on his shoulder, began in childhood, Thomas said. It got bigger at Ohio State, where Thomas recalls that he had to redshirt his sophomore season.
He disproved a lot of the doubters there while catching 110 passes for 1580 yards and 18 TDs over his final two seasons with the Buckeyes, all while accumulating the mentality that's rampant in Columbus: Win every day.
If there were any doubters left heading into the 2019 season, an all-time great campaign with an NFL record 149 catches -- which no one has yet been able to touch even with an extra game added to the schedule -- erased a majority of them. Still, there were complaints about slant routes even as he joined the 99 club in Madden. Then the injuries came with a high ankle sprain in Week 1 of the 2020 season. He tried to come back later in the year, but only made the injury worse. He underwent surgery but ultimately missed the entirety of the 2021 season.
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Things looked back on track to start 2022 with a two-touchdown performance in a record comeback over the Falcons, but a Week 3 toe injury ended another season early. Needless to say, that time on the sideline helped rebuild that chip on MT's shoulder, and the struggle to stay on the field has bred a whole new group of doubters to fuel his fire.
"Just knowing how to pull from those situations in life where you couldn’t compete or you couldn’t win, or like, even just my injury where I just had to be like, watching from TV or watching from the side," Thomas said. "I couldn’t put my hand in the pile and just those things building up, make you want to lock in and seize the moment and just take advantage of the opportunity when it presents you and just not letting things get away."
Thomas was held out of OTAs and minicamp this season again, but he was a full go at the start of camp -- unlike a year ago when he was slowly worked in -- and is yet to miss a day of practice. That likely will change at some point, as Dennis Allen explained, with some scheduled rest built in.
"We’ve got a plan for Mike," Allen said. "I think he’s been doing a good job going through that plan and trusting in what we’re doing, and I think every day you see just a little bit more improvement out of him, more and more confidence, and I think it’s been good to see.”
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For his part, Thomas has looked every bit of the physical, dominating presence that helped pace the Saints to four straight playoff appearances. They've missed the postseason without him the past two seasons. Still, he's not willing to proclaim that he's back, or that he's "arrived," only that he's "trending in the right direction" as he continues to build a rapport with new QB Derek Carr in a familiar, Pete Carmichael-led offense.
"We could be tremendous, honestly," Thomas said. "One day at a time, but we see a lot of flashes on it from film. We’ve already been seeing a lot of flashes of it just in practice. We have a tremendous group, a lot of guys that are going to show up and show out, I feel like, this year. It’s going to be fun. It’s going to be explosive."
Until then, let the doubters doubt. Thomas makes it clear he won't ignore them, but he will prove them wrong.
"Doubt me," he said. "You can doubt me, then I’m gonna get you and we’ll see what happens. That might be like a psychological problem for you because I just proved you wrong, and then you still doubt me. It’s good for the game. It’s good for the sport.”
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