The NFL moves quickly for some players and New Orleans Saints’ tight end Treyton Welch knows that better than anyone in the team’s locker room.
Player transactions, competition, annual new faces and more, the shuffle of an NFL roster can be a stunning blend of elation, confusion and even frustration.
Through it all, one thing for sure is that the league is always unpredictable.
For Welch, he experienced that fact as his NFL career began.
Welch arrived in Cleveland as an undrafted signee by the Browns out of Wyoming. The 6-foot-3, 241-pound rookie was a part of a competitive battle the Browns had with David Njoku and Jordan Akins as well as, at the time, future Saints tight end Zaire Mitchell-Paden
Noted as a competitive and versatile tight end, who could run routes, block and make tough catches through contact, Welch competed for a spot in Cleveland that quickly went from a certainty to an entirely new opportunity.
“I thought I had an opportunity to come back (to Cleveland),” Welch said. “I went in for a meeting with the team and they didn’t have a spot for me there.”
The quick turn from being waived to finding out the job he thought he had was actually gone all within an approximately 36-hour period startled Welch. But beyond the shock, was clarity.
“My prayer had been that God would open the doors that need to be opened and close the doors that need to be closed,” he said. “At that moment, it really felt like God had closed the doors that needed to be closed, and He opened the door that was to be opened.”
That door was one to New Orleans. As Welch learned that he no longer had the spot he expected to have with the Browns’ practice squad, he found out that his next opportunity was in the Crescent City.
Welch and the Saints had communication during the 2024 draft process. He and former Saints tight end coach Clancy Barone (who was always bullish about Welch), had pre-draft conversations. So when the chance to join the Saints presented itself for the tight end, he had a prior relationship that made him comfortable with the alignment.
“It happened so fast,” Welch said.
After being waived on a Tuesday, and learning on Wednesday that his spot in Cleveland wasn’t available, Welch and his agent agreed to terms with the Saints for a practice squad spot that day. He then flew to New Orleans Wednesday night and was on the practice field that Thursday morning.
The whiplash of the moment quickly subsided and now, Welch has been in New Orleans for three seasons and began the 2026 season on the active roster before eventually finding his way back to the practice squad.
As that sensation subsided, it’s worth highlighting that the nomadic nature of being a practice squad player remains. Now in his third season with the Saints, Welch, like most practice squad members, still resides in a hotel in the area. A constant reminder of his desire to earn his keep in New Orleans.
No matter where he’s rostered with the team, he has nothing but appreciation for the franchise and nothing but love for the city.
“What a blessing to be in New Orleans,” he said. “To see God’s provision through all of it, to see God provide that answer to my prayer.”
Welch said that he leaned on a specific Bible verse; Isaiah 40:8, when seeking his path forward throughout the uncertainty that often becomes second nature in the NFL.
“The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.”
For the tight end and his wife, who joined him in New Orleans within days after his first practice with the team, the verse served as a guiding light, helping him turn what could have been a challenging situation into an opportunity for appreciation.
“I just remember looking at my wife one day, a couple days after I got down here, and I just started laughing,” he said. “It’s like ‘We’re in New Orleans!’ It just happens like that.”
New Orleans isn’t viewed as a consolation prize by the tight end, he has a real appreciation for the city’s culture and its connection to the Saints franchise. Many would choose New Orleans if given the chance and many have, he said.
Late writer Tennessee Williams purportedly believed that the United States has “only three cities” in a famous quote that feels apropos to Welch’s remarkable path to the Saints.
Those cities: “New York, San Francisco and New Orleans. Everywhere else is Cleveland.”
