Saints’ Chris Olave’s quiet camp not of concern

By Ross Jackson

Of the New Orleans Saints wide receivers, one of the biggest returners in 2025 is wideout Chris Olave. The 2022 first-round pick saw his season come to a close early last year after some brutal hits led to some concerning head injuries and concussions. 

But now Olave is back and has been full-go all offseason when he’s on the field. 

However, his name hasn’t dominated airways the way fellow receivers Rashid Shaheed and Mason Tipton have. The good news is that there’s good news for that. 

Olave has strung together some big plays much like Shaheed and Tipton, but he’s made a habit of doing some of the dirty work in practices as well. He has been the wideout that his young quarterbacks go to in order to get a rhythm, sometimes multiple times in a row. 

A good example of this can be seen from Sunday’s preseason tie with the Jacksonville Jaguars. During rookie Tyler Shough’s second drive, he targeted Olave on a trio of consecutive passing plays. One resulted in a drop, but the point stands that when the team needed yardage, the quarterback needed a rhythm and the offenses needed a first down, it was Olave that everyone relied upon in his first live action since Week Nine of the 2024 season. 

So while chatter around Olave has been quiet, there doesn’t seem to be any kind of hesitation from the team getting him back into the fold. That’s one of the reasons that expectations around the talented pass-catcher continue to be held in such high regard.