How Michael Thomas Quietly Became the Highest-Paid WR in NFL History — The Role of the Roster Bonus

If you looked at Michael Thomas's Spotrac page and saw a 2024 cap hit of $59 million — more than Aaron Rodgers, Patrick Mahomes, Deshaun Watson, or Russell Wilson — you'd be right to be confused.

Michael Thomas listed as the NFL's top cap hit in 2024:

Spotrac's NFL cap hits ranking with Thomas at the top:

The number is real. The context, however, makes it look very different. Here's the full story.

1. Two Pieces of Background

1.1. Michael Thomas Was Already Headed for Release

Thomas has been dealing with recurring injuries since 2020. The 2022 season brought yet another — despite strong play in the games he did appear. With large cap hits looming in 2023 and 2024, the Saints made the decision to release him. This had been widely expected since he was placed on IR in November 2021.

Tweet on Thomas's 2021 IR placement:

1.2. New Orleans Has One of the Worst Cap Situations in the NFL

The Saints are perennial fixtures at the bottom of the league's available cap space rankings. Heading into 2023, they needed to get from more than $50M over the cap to positive — before the new league year opened on March 15th.

Saints' cap position, last in the NFL:

2. Thomas's Original Contract and the Dead Money Problem

When a team releases a player, the cap doesn't go to zero. Signing bonuses and guaranteed salary that already paid or has been promised must still be counted — that's dead money.

Thomas's remaining contract (from his 5-year, $96M deal covering 2020–2024) looked like this before the January restructure (workout bonuses and other minor items excluded):

Michael Thomas original contract remaining years — base salary, signing bonus, and restructure amounts (via SaintsCap.com)

Releasing him immediately after the 2022 season would trigger approximately $25M in dead money (the prorated signing bonus and prior restructure amounts already paid) hitting the cap in 2023. The remaining $34M in base salary for 2023–2024 would come off the books entirely. By default, all of that dead money would land in 2023 — in a single lump sum.

3. Use the "June 1 Cut" Rule to Split the Dead Money

The Saints didn't want $25M hitting in 2023 all at once. Enter the Post June-1 Designation rule.

What is Post June-1 Designation?

When a team releases a player, the timing determines how dead money is applied:

• Before June 1: All dead money hits the current year's cap
• June 2 or later: Dead money splits — the current-year portion hits this year, and the "future" portion hits next year

Exception: up to two players per year can be designated "Post June 1" even if released before June 1st, granting the same split treatment.

Applied to Thomas, a Post June-1 designation would split the $25M dead money: $11.8M hitting in 2023 and $13.8M hitting in 2024. A much more manageable distribution. (The Saints also used this approach when Drew Brees retired.)

4. The Catch: Keeping Thomas Through the New League Year

Here's where it gets complicated. To use the Post June-1 Designation, the Saints would need to keep Thomas on the roster until at least the start of the new league year (March 15th). That means his 2023 base salary of $15.5M would also count against the cap during that window.

Remember: the Saints were $60M over the cap and had to reach zero before March 15th. Carrying Thomas's $15.5M base salary during that period makes it dramatically harder.

The dilemma:

• Cut him early → the full $25M in dead money hits 2023 at once
• Hold him through March → can split the dead money, but the $15.5M base salary is a major obstacle

5. The Solution: Ask Thomas to Restructure

To break the stalemate, the Saints negotiated a contract modification with Thomas on January 7th, 2023. Three key changes:

Michael Thomas restructured contract summary (via SaintsCap.com)

5.1. Reduce 2023 Base Salary from $15.5M to $1.165M (League Minimum)

This alone drops the 2023 cap hit by $14M, making it far easier for the Saints to reach cap compliance before March 15th.

This looks like a pay cut. But since Thomas was going to be released before Week 1 anyway, that base salary was never going to reach his bank account regardless. The reduction costs Thomas nothing in practice.

5.2. Add $0.9M in Signing Bonus

The Saints pay an additional $0.9M signing bonus upfront. This is essentially compensation for Thomas agreeing to the restructure. The modest amount signals that Thomas and the Saints' relationship remained professional throughout.

5.3. Add a $31M Roster Bonus for 2024, Fully Guaranteed on March 17, 2023

A large new roster bonus — with a specific guarantee date — is added to the contract for 2024. The reason for this is explained in the next section.

6. The Player's Perspective: "If You're Going to Cut Me, Do It Early"

From the Saints' side, the restructure solves the cap problem neatly. They can use the Post June-1 Designation, split the dead money, and release Thomas after the new league year opens.

But the restructure creates a new problem for Thomas: there's now no clarity on exactly when he'll be released.

This matters more than most people realize. For a player who knows he's going to be released, being cut as early as possible is almost always better. Here's why:

Free agency opens immediately after the new league year begins. The biggest contracts are signed in the first week — sometimes the first few days. Once teams fill their needs and the draft comes and goes, rosters fill up and cap space disappears steadily. A player released in late May or June is negotiating with a much thinner market than one released in mid-March.

Securing the best available contract — in terms of both money and team situation — requires being available when teams are still actively shopping. The later a player enters the market, the worse his leverage gets.

7. The Roster Bonus Was a Guaranteed Release Date

To protect Thomas's free agency timing, the restructure needed to build in a mechanism that forces the Saints to release him by mid-March — not just a handshake agreement.

Enter the $31M roster bonus.

What is a Roster Bonus?

A roster bonus is a type of salary paid in a lump sum on a specific date, conditional on the player being on the roster at that time. Unlike base salary (paid in weekly installments during the regular season), roster bonuses are typically structured to land in the offseason. For teams, the key implication is clear: if you don't want to pay it, you need to make a roster decision before the trigger date.

Thomas's roster bonus is structured as follows: the $31M is payable in 2024, but becomes fully guaranteed on March 17, 2023. That means if the Saints have Thomas on the roster past March 17th, they owe him $31M in 2024 no matter what — even if they release him the next day.

That creates an undeniable financial incentive for the Saints to release Thomas by March 16th at the latest. Problem solved for Thomas — he now has a near-guaranteed release date right at the start of the free agency window.

The most likely outcome: New Orleans releases him on March 15th or 16th via Post June-1 Designation, and Thomas hits the open market at the most competitive moment of the free agency period.

As for why the bonus had to be $31M and not something smaller: a modest roster bonus wouldn't create sufficient financial pressure. The Saints might calculate that they could hold Thomas a bit longer if the cost were only $1–2M — whether to explore a trade or buy time. The bonus needed to be an amount that was genuinely untenable to absorb, ruling out any temptation to delay. (Compare to the Garoppolo situation, where the absence of such a mechanism allowed San Francisco to keep him deep into the offseason without consequence.)

8. Sidebar: Other Uses of Roster Bonuses and Guarantee Dates

"Being released as early as possible" is a principle that players and agents bake into contracts proactively, not just reactively.

Derek Carr (LV) was facing a salary guarantee date of February 15th, which is why the Raiders were expected to make a decision before that date. When people said "it's cruel to release someone right after the Super Bowl," they were actually getting it backwards — the early release was designed to maximize Carr's free agency window.

The reverse example: Jimmy Garoppolo (SF) had no roster bonus or early guarantee date in his final contract year. San Francisco could hold him through the entire offseason at minimal cost, which is exactly what happened. By the time interest in him solidified, the market had thinned — and the 49ers were eventually able to restructure his deal at a dramatically lower base salary.

A recent positive example: Roquan Smith (BAL) has roster bonuses built into the final two years of his contract specifically to prevent exactly this scenario.

Roquan Smith contract structure — roster bonuses added in contract years 4–5 (via Spotrac)

The bonuses trigger right after the new league year opens in years four and five. Combined with the strong dead money protection through 2025, Smith has meaningful contractual leverage against being held or cut on the team's timeline.

9. Summary

To recap:

• Michael Thomas was already slated for release — that was not in doubt
• The January restructure was a cap management maneuver to allow the Saints to use the Post June-1 Designation without carrying his full $15.5M base salary through March
• The $59M cap hit is a roster bonus that was deliberately set at an amount New Orleans could never actually pay — it was designed to expire unused, functioning purely as a contractual guarantee of an early release date for Thomas

The headline number was designed to be unpayable. If you know what you're looking at, the story behind it is more interesting than shocking.

[Update] Following this article, reports emerged that the Saints and Thomas were in discussions about a modified deal — removing the roster bonus and restructuring his contract to allow him to remain in New Orleans, with Derek Carr's recruitment also playing a role in the decision. A pay cut plus a residency appeared likely.

Michael Thomas in the 2020 season, in the context of his contract extension at the time: