The Saints and Chris Olave are still working through a contract extension, and the expectation right now is that the wideout won’t have to miss any training camp time because of it, according to Nick Underhill.
That business side is unfolding while New Orleans remains careful with Olave’s return to full football work. The 25-year-old has been taking part in individual drills during OTAs, but he has not yet gotten back into team periods since a blood clot in his lungs was discovered five months ago. That issue forced him to sit out the season finale, and Saints coach Kellen Moore said the team is keeping a close eye on his workload.
“He hasn’t been able to do the team activities obviously throughout OTAs, ” coach Moore said, via Nola.com. “The blood clot was related to not participating in team and some of those things.”
Olave has spoken openly about how serious the diagnosis felt when he first learned about it, but his focus now is simple: be ready when Week 1 arrives.
“It was crazy,” Olave said. “I didn’t really know before when they told me, I ain’t really know what a blood clot was, but once they told me, they explained the whole situation that was going on, I feel like it was tough at first.”
“But I just put my best foot forward, (and am) just trying to do everything right so I can be healthy at the beginning of the year.”
He also recently said he expects something to get done before training camp on the contract front.
The Saints know exactly what they have in Olave. They traded up and took him No. 11 overall in the 2022 draft after his run at Ohio State, where he was first-team All-Big Ten in 2020 and 2021 and a second-team AP All-American in 2021 as a senior.
Olave was playing on the final year of his four-year, $19,271,875 deal, which included a $11,195,909 signing bonus, before New Orleans exercised his fifth-year option worth $15.49 million guaranteed for 2026.
In 2025, he played 16 games and finished with 100 catches on 156 targets for 1,163 yards, a 11.6 YPC average, and nine touchdowns.
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