The New Orleans Saints made an unexpected roster move on Wednesday, releasing veteran wide receiver Brandin Cooks. This means that Chris Olave, who is already the team's top receiver, should expect his workload to get even bigger.
Currently, he leads the team in receiving yards with 664 after 11 weeks through the season. The next leading receiver for the team, wide receiver Rashid Shaheed, hasn't even been in the building for two weeks now. The closest person to Olave is actually tight end Juwan Johnson, who has 491 receiving yards this year.
Olave is having one of the best seasons of his career and is on track to make the 2025 season the best season he's ever had. Along with the 664 receiving yards, he also already has four touchdowns on the year, one away from matching his career high of five in one season. Before the trade, Olave was projected to have 1,200 receiving yards along with seven touchdown receptions. Now? Those numbers could skyrocket.
Chris Olave will more than earn his new contract with a strong end to the season
The wide receiver depth chart gets questionable once you get past Chris Olave. The Saints somehow got more shallow at the position than they were a year ago. Olave's the only wide receiver with at least 10 catches on the team. Rashid Shaheed? Traded. Brandin Cooks? Released. That leaves Olave, Johnson and Alvin Kamara as the only players with double digit catches. On the perimeter, it's the Olave show with no co-stars.
Devaughn Vele is the only other receiver with a single catch on the roster. If the game plan stays the same as it did after Shaheed was traded, it's going to be a heavy dose of Olave, without much contribution from others out wide.
That wouldn't be the right idea. Relying on one receiver out wide has always been a risky gamble. Even when you had Michael Thomas, it worked, but the lack of a complementary wide receiver always felt like a void on the team. That's with Michael Thomas, Drew Brees and prime Alvin Kamara. Even then, fans wanted a second wide receiver. Now, you have Olave, a rookie quarterback, a less active Kamara and Juwan Johnson.
Nevertheless, this appears to be the situation the Saints are going to step into. If this is what they're going to do, then Olave is going to have take an even bigger step forward. He had his best game in the wake of the Shaheed trade.
In recent weeks, Olave has stretched the field more frequently. He's looking for a new contract, and showing he can put the receiving corps on his back will bolster his contract value.