Chris Olave 2025 Season in Review

Chris Olave finished 2025 as the number 6 wide receiver in total PPR scoring and the number 8 wide receiver in PPR per game. And here's the kicker — he did it on a six-and-eleven Saints team that finished 27th in offensive expected points added, with a Tyler Shough and Spencer Rattler quarterback rotation combining for eighteen touchdowns and eleven interceptions. Olave was the unambiguous number-one option, the centerpiece of the passing game — and he played all sixteen games he suited up for, which itself was a story given his injury history. This ranking isn't built on splash plays. It's built on relentless, every-week usage on a team with no other reliable receiving threat.

Now let's dig into the numbers. Olave caught 100 balls on 156 targets for 1,163 yards and 9 touchdowns, averaging 16.7 PPR points per game. The usage was elite: a 29 percent target share and a 41 percent share of the team's air yards — when the Saints threw it deep, it was going Olave's way. His total receiving expected points added landed at plus 35.6, a strong mark on an offense sitting at minus 93.7 overall. Average separation of 2.95 yards says he was winning on his own merit, not scheme. And the consistency backs the alpha profile — Olave cleared double-digit PPR in fourteen of sixteen games, with only Week 9 versus the Rams and Week 14 at Tampa Bay dipping below ten. He topped 20 PPR five times and smashed the Jets for 36.8 in Week 16. Steady floor, real ceiling spikes — closer to true alpha than boom-or-bust.

The play that captures Olave's season came in Week 10 at Carolina — second quarter, third-and-eight, Saints down 7-3. Shough dropped back and hit him deep right for a 62-yard touchdown, the single most valuable play of his year at plus 6.6 expected points added, with 42 air yards and 20 more after the catch. That's the whole season in one snap: third-and-long, defenses keying on him, Olave winning anyway down the field. Five of his nine touchdowns came on third-down conversions. He wasn't just the volume guy — he was the move-the-chains guy.