Davon Godchaux came back home to Louisiana last season, and now the Saints defensive tackle says he’s walking into year two feeling lighter, sharper and more comfortable in Brandon Staley’s defense.
That matters for a player who has built a long NFL run by being reliable in the middle. Godchaux, an ex-LSU standout and nine-year veteran, played every game for New Orleans in 2025 and finished with 43 tackles, two for loss and a forced fumble. He’s now aiming to build on that after trimming down this offseason.
“I feel good, down 10 to 12 pounds from last year, I feel really good,” Godchaux said last week at Saints training camp. “Second year in Staley’s defense after the ebbs and flows of it last year, but second year, I feel comfortable.
I feel great. I know what he wants.”
What Staley wants, according to Godchaux, is versatility. The veteran said the weight loss was about staying healthy and making sure he can hold up wherever the Saints need him. That includes plenty of the dirty work inside.
“Just doing whatever this team asks me to do,” he said. “Especially in the early downs, I can do it all.
Nickel base, penny, whatever we do, I’m just ready to have a big season, and it’s going to start fast for us. I want to feel great about myself, and I want to feel great about dominating this season.”
Godchaux’s confidence comes after a career that started with a strong three-year run at LSU from 2014-2016. After leaving Plaquemine High, he played in 37 games for the Tigers and piled up 145 tackles, 18.5 for loss and 12 sacks. He left after his junior season and was picked 178th overall by the Miami Dolphins in the fifth round of the 2017 NFL Draft.
He spent four seasons in Miami and totaled 179 tackles there, though a bicep injury limited him to five games in 2020. The next stop was New England, where he became one of the league’s most steady nose tackles. At 6-foot-3 and 330 pounds, he anchored the Patriots’ front and started all but one game across four seasons before the Saints brought him back to his home state in a trade for a 2026 seventh-round pick.
Now the challenge is continuing to carry that load after the Saints lost Bryan Bresee to a season-ending anterior cruciate ligament knee injury on the first practice of training camp. Godchaux will be part of the answer up front, but he made it clear the whole unit will have to absorb the blow.
“I expect us to have a big year, if we handle our part and everybody stays healthy,” he said. “Bryan Bresee - first day.
Man, it was like a freak accident. There was hardly even any contact.
Really, it was just a pass-rush move, and he felt his knee buckle.”
The man coaching that defensive line is another familiar LSU name. Bo Davis is back with the Saints for a second straight season after leaving Baton Rouge, and Godchaux sounds like he knows exactly what that comes with.
Davis played at LSU from 1990-1992, returned as a graduate assistant from 1995-1997, and was part of the Tigers’ 2003 national championship staff under Nick Saban as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He later coached with Saban in Miami and Alabama, spent time at Texas, returned to Alabama, worked in the NFL with Jacksonville and Detroit, then went back to Texas before taking the LSU job for 2024.
Godchaux called Davis intense, and he seems to appreciate the edge.
“I’m excited to spend year two with him for sure,” Godchaux said. “Bo’s going to be Bo.
I tell guys, ‘Just take what you need, and all the rest, just tune it out. Because Bo’s going to say a lot of stuff.
Some stuff you should hear and some stuff you don’t want to hear.'”
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