- Ellias J Williams
- Jan 26
Get Tyler Shough more weapons!
That's the logic spread across my twitter timeline, and while I understand it, I obviously don't agree with it - not from a team building POV.
The reason most mock drafters are typically inaccurate isn't because they are bad at identifying talent, it's because it's too hard to know how each individual team views the available pool of players and their potential role on the team.
Team building is like fitting a puzzle.
For instance, Jaxson Smith Njgba isn't a deep threat. He's not the guy you send and or potentially target on a clear out route. So when the Seahawks identified Rashid Shaheed as a complimentary piece it made perfect sense. On the other hand some Saints fans are a bit raw about the trade, especially seeing the impact Shaheed is having.
What they fail to realize is that Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed were competing for downfield targets. Most forget Olave came into the league as a deep threat in Sean Payton's offense, filling the role previously occupied by the likes of Ted Ginn and Devery Henderson.
"I came in here as a deep threat," Olave declared in June.
He didn't excel at it like the Saints hoped and combined with the emergence of Shaheed his target share to that area of the field decreased.
That can be confirmed because in both 2024 under Kubiak and 2025 under Kellen Moore, Olave lobbied the Saints to use him more down the field during the off-season
"We got one of the best deep threats in the league in Shid. I'm just trying to get more involved, get some more deep ball targets, and try to play with that." Olave said.
So it makes sense why the Saints were willing to trade Shaheed to open up more opportunities for their former 1st rounder.
Back to the team building aspect of this.
When looking at targets and usage it's clear Olave is the Alpha in this offense. He plays the X, Slot(41%), and Z and threatens defenses short, intermediate and deep.
Meanwhile, Kellen Moore confirmed that Devaughn Vele plays the Z/Slot spending roughly 41% of his time in the slot, while 53% of Juwan Johnson's snaps came from the slot (lead team) along with 15% coming out wide. Ironically he only spent 27% of his snaps in-line.
If you watch the offense after the Cooks trade, starting with Miami you'll see the offense runs through Chris Olave, Juwan Johnson, and Devaughn Vele.
Those are your #1, #2, and #3 options in the passing game. If you want to look at it from alignment.
Olave - X, Z, Slot
Juwan - Slot, TE
Vele - Z, Slot.
Can you see what's missing? Saints don't have much redundancy on the outside. Do you know who the #4 receiver ended up being?
UDFA Mason Tipton.
When looking at the Buccaneers and Dolphins game (healthy Vele) you typically saw a combination of Olave/Juwan on the inside, Olave/Vele on inside, or Juwan/Vele on inside. A consistent when those guys moved around the formation was Tipton as the lone WR on the outside.
He was rarely targeted, not because he wasn't open, but because he wasn't the focal point of the offense.
Moving forward the big three are unlikely to change with Olave currently set as the 6th highest paid player in 2026, Juwan as the 9th, and the Saints were willing to cut Cooks to get Vele more involved in the offense.
So when I see twitter post saying that the Saint's must upgrade the WR position I keep thinking when is the 4th receiving option ever a must? Even less of a must when you consider the Saints have a former 2nd round pick on reserve waiting to fill that 4th receiving option role in Jalynn Polk.
I get it, picking a WR is sexy, but not at the cost of ignoring that extrapolated over an entire season Tyler Shough would have been sacked 51 times and that a young QB's best friend is a running game and a strong defense.
Ignoring that despite having both Tee Higgins and Jamar Chase, Joe Burrow can't quite seem to keep himself off the ground.
Do the Saints need to add to the WR position and continue to build up their middle class? Absolutely, am I willing to sign a top tier FA or use a premium pick at #8 on one in a very deep draft at the position?
Nope, it's unnecessary.
The deal scenario in my opinion would be to add Louisville's Chris Bell somewhere on Day 2. The main skillset missing in the WR group is someone that can get YAC and take screen's and quick passes the distance. He's a high level man beater on the backside of plays and the familiarity with Shough should only help.
You can bring him along slowly and he'd be insurance if Olave's injury history becomes a problem and/or a change of scenery doesn't help Polk.
Otherwise the Saints would be wise to find a starting LG, a 1A or 1B RB to pair with Kamara and some defensive reinforcements. All would directly or indirectly take pressure off Shough and help keep him available for a full 17 game season.
