New Orleans Saints’ rookie wide receiver Chris Olave is currently enjoying a spectacular season and has a chance to make some serious history. The downside to this perhaps is that the Saints are not very good this year, so Olave maybe isn’t getting as much attention as he deserves.
However, what he’s done so far is quite amazing. Primarily catching passes from Andy Dalton, Olave has clearly separated himself in the offensive rookie of the year race and is the go-to target on the New Orleans Saints.
That’s pretty impressive for a rookie. In 10 games played this year, Chris Olave, the 22 year old former Ohio State Buckeye has caught 51 passes for 760 yards and three touchdowns. If this was a full 17 game season for a rookie wide receiver, that in itself would be marvelous.
But no, Olave still has six games left on his plate and could push to make some all-time history. His numbers this year put him in some good company. He ranks 10th in the NFL in receiving yards. He’s ahead of players like CeeDee Lamb, Tee Higgins, Amari Cooper, Mike Evans, and Courtland Sutton.
His 51 receptions rank 16th in the NFL, and his 83 target rank 11th in the league. Since he’s played 10 games, he is averaging an even 76 yards per game. If he can keep this pace up, he’ll hit 1,216 yards on the year.
That would give him the 8th most receiving yards by a rookie in NFL history. Chris Olave does just about everything as a receiver. He has good hands, his routes are polished, and his insanely fast. It appears that New Orleans has their next great wide receiver
The team was likely counting on the trio of Michael Thomas, Jarvis Landry, and Olave to be a threat in the NFC South, and I’m not sure that anyone in the NFL thought that Olave would end up being the best of the three by a mile.
Hopefully Andy Dalton can keep feed him the ball.