The Saints may already have gotten ahead of the curve with Chris Olave.
That’s the strange little game the NFL keeps playing with receiver contracts: a deal looks massive one week, then another star resets the market and suddenly the earlier number feels like a steal. New Orleans is living that reality now after the Ravens gave Zay Flowers his extension.
Flowers is coming off back-to-back 1,000-yard seasons, so Baltimore was never going to let him get away. But his place on the receiver pay scale is what makes the Saints’ Olave deal pop. Flowers is listed at No. 4 among the highest-paid wideouts, tied at $35,000,000 per year with Justin Jefferson, who many still consider the best receiver in football.
Here’s how the top of the market now looks:
- Jaxon Smith-Njigba SEA, WR $42,150,000
- Ja'Marr Chase CIN, WR $40,250,000
- Drake London ATL, WR $35,263,500
- Zay Flowers BAL, WR $35,000,000
- Justin Jefferson MIN, WR $35,000,000
- CeeDee Lamb DAL, WR $34,000,000
- D.K. Metcalf PIT, WR $33,000,000
- Garrett Wilson NYJ, WR $32,500,000
- Terry McLaurin WAS, WR $32,333,333
- A.J. Brown NE, WR $32,000,000
Olave sits just outside that group at No. 11, with an average salary of $31 million. That puts him ahead of Amon-Ra St. Brown and Brandon Aiyuk, who currently does not have a team.
The comparison with Flowers tilts the Saints’ way, too. Olave has played five more games, 55 to 50, and in that span he has more than 50 additional catches, exactly 600 more receiving yards, and five more touchdowns. The injury history around Olave matters, but in terms of pure receiver production, he’s ahead of Flowers.
That’s why the New Orleans extension already looks like such a clean piece of business. It gave the Saints their No. 1 target, and it did so at a number that can still be called a bargain. As more receivers keep cashing in over the next few offseasons, the deal should only look better.
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