Report: New Orleans Saints cut RB Pierre Thomas

The New Orleans Saints cut fan favorite running back Pierre Thomas on Wednesday in a salary cap move.

Lent is an important part of New Orleans culture. During the Lenten season, parishioners are encouraged to spend time searching their souls, repenting and mourning. And so it is apropos that during the Lenten season, New Orleanians will have something to mourn over.

That something is the reported loss of eight-year veteran running back Pierre Thomas, who scored the first ever Super Bowl touchdown for the New Orleans Saints.

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Thomas in many ways signified everything good about the Sean Payton-era in New Orleans. Like so many of the team’s stars over the past nine years, Thomas was disregarded by every other team. He was not drafted, and only made the team as the result of a brilliant Training Camp in 2007.

He began his career as a special teams star, as the team already had Deuce McAllister, Reggie Bush and Aaron Stecker co-handling the running back duties. Yet it was Thomas who made the play in 2007 which righted the team’s disappointing 0-4 start when he picked up a blocked punt and turned it into a touchdown in Week 5 at Seattle.

From that moment on, he was a Saints legend.

In the final game of 2007, he became the first Saints back in recent memory to gain 100 yards rushing and 100 yards receiving in the same game, when he did so at Chicago, his hometown.

By 2009, he was the unquestioned leader of the Saints’ backfield, and had become known as an elite “screen back”. To this day, he is likely the best in the NFL at turning a screen into a big play.

Sean Payton, who has become known as a loyalist to “his guys” loved Thomas, and likely fought this move tooth and nail. But given his over $2.5 million cap hit in 2015 and fading production at age 30, the move had to be made.

It possibly could have been avoided if the Saints were not so pressed against the cap. The Saints are still estimated to be about $20 million over the projected $142 million salary cap.

For that reason, the Saints are seeking to find other ways to cut salary, including the on-again, off-again rumors of a Drew Brees salary cut, like the one Peyton Manning just agreed to in Denver, along with possible restructures with wide receiver Marques Colston and guards Jahri Evans and Ben Grubbs, who each are slated to pull in around $8-9 million next season.

Last offseason, the Saints signed All-Pro tight end Jimmy Graham to a four-year, $40 million deal and gave Junior Galette, who made news this offseason already for all the wrong reasons, a four-year, $41 million contract.

The Saints are apparently interested in bringing back Mark Ingram at a team-friendly cost and have Travaris Cadet to possibly fill some of Thomas’ “screen back” role.

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