For two years the Saints asked Chris Olave to be a one-man show, and he mostly delivered anyway, catching 100 of 156 targets for 1,163 yards and 9 touchdowns in 16 games last season despite quarterback chaos around him. This offseason New Orleans finally did something about the supporting cast. They traded for Devaughn Vele and Ja'Lynn Polk, claimed Trey Palmer off waivers, and used the No. 8 overall pick on Arizona State's Jordyn Tyson, who fell one rep short of the combine bench press record for wide receivers. Brandin Cooks and Rashid Shaheed are gone. In their place is a room Kellen Moore actually sounds excited about.
Moore's quote says it all: "We've got him in our system now, and let's just start building this in the right way." That's coach-speak for we're not doing the bare-minimum receiver room anymore. Moore has made health and patience a priority since taking over in 2025, which matters here because both of his top two receivers spent the spring on the shelf. Olave has been on blood thinners since a blood clot was discovered in his lung in January, and Tyson battled recurring hamstring issues at Arizona State. Neither took a full-speed rep all spring. They did share a half-speed walkthrough on the last day of minicamp, which the receivers coach called the start of a "buddy friendship." Cute, but the real test is training camp.
Both are targeting the September 13 opener against Detroit to be full-go, and there's real optimism they get there. Olave, for his part, is already talking about what a second real receiver does for his own numbers, saying it "opens up everything... they can't play two over me or cloud coverage." That's not just spin. Defenses have been able to sell out on Olave for two seasons because there was nobody else on the boundary worth respecting. A rookie with Tyson's combine profile changes that math even before he's proven anything on Sundays.
Here's the fantasy wrinkle nobody's fully priced in yet. Olave is sitting around WR13-WR15 on early ADP boards, which is fair value for a guy who nearly hit 1,200 yards on a broken offense, but it also assumes he keeps eating the target share he's had by default. That assumption gets shakier the moment Tyson is healthy and drawing designed targets as a first-round pick. Tyler Shough is projected to open the season under center, and better quarterback play should raise the offense's overall efficiency, which is good for everybody in the room, but a rising tide doesn't mean Olave's target share stays at his current inflated level. Draft him as a high-end WR2 with real weekly ceiling, not the locked-in target hog he was by necessity last year.
Tyson himself is the name to watch on redraft waiver wires and in rookie drafts alike. Landing as a top-8 pick in an offense that's clearly building around its receivers, with a coach who's already talking about him like a plan and not a project, is about as good a landing spot as a rookie wideout gets. He won't be startable in most leagues Week 1 given the hamstring history and a crowded room, but dynasty managers should be trying to buy now, before a couple of monster camp reports push his price up. Devaughn Vele is more of a size/red-zone complement than a true target hog, but keep an eye on camp reports for snap distribution behind Olave and Tyson, since Vele's the guy most likely to see his role shrink if the top two stay healthy.
There's a betting angle here too. The Saints' win total opened at 6.5 before the draft and has since climbed to 7.5, with the under sitting at plus money on DraftKings. A functional, multi-threat passing game is a big part of why oddsmakers bumped that number, and it's worth remembering the Saints are projected to have the second-easiest schedule in the league in 2026. If Olave and Tyson are both healthy by mid-September, this offense has more juice than a preseason under/over crowd is giving it credit for, and that filters down to season-long player props for both receivers as well.
The obvious caveat is health, and it's a real one. Olave's situation with blood thinners is being managed cautiously for good reason, and Tyson's hamstring flared up more than once in college. Camp reps in full pads will tell us more than any offseason walkthrough. But the direction here is unmistakable: New Orleans stopped trying to survive at receiver and started trying to build an actual room. For a fantasy market that's still pricing Olave like he's the only threat on the field, that's the value play worth remembering before draft day.