What You Need to Know:

-- Thomas has led the league in receptions for 2 straight seasons.

-- Emmanuel Sanders will be the Saints’ best #2 WR since 2016, Thomas’ rookie year.

-- Saints wideouts drew their smallest target share since 2014 last season.

-- New Orleans leaned further toward the pass in 2019 than in the previous 2 seasons.

A Record Year

Since Thomas entered the league in 2016, he has caught 77 more passes than anyone else in the league. Leading the NFL by 45 catches last season certainly didn’t hurt. It was the 2nd straight year Thomas led the league in that category.

Thomas has never been a big yardage winner. He has averaged just 11.7 yards per reception for his 4-year career and has yet to match the 12.4-yard average of his rookie campaign.

He has, however, posted a crazy 78.1% career catch rate -- including rates of 85% and 80.5% the past 2 seasons. Last year’s mark, of course, came despite Drew Brees missing 5 early-season games.

Thomas set the NFL record for receptions in 2019, but he did so on just the 14th most targets (dating back to 1992).

Offensive Changes

Thomas dominated target share last season. His 31.8% share of Saints targets not only led the league in that category. He beat the next wideout by 5.3 percentage points. Thomas also drew 28.3% of Saints targets in 2018. That ranked 3rd among WRs for the season, though it would have led the league this past year.

Thomas will face a new target challenge in 2020. New Orleans signed Emmanuel Sanders in free agency. The last time the Saints sported a noteworthy WR2 (i.e. better than Ted Ginn Jr.) was back in 2016. That was Thomas’ rookie year, and Brandin Cooks ranked 2nd on that team with 117 targets.

Sanders has drawn 92+ targets in 7 straight seasons, including a pair of years in which he missed 4 games.

The veteran actually played 17 games last season, despite dealing with a rib injury. He spent the first 7…