Chris Olave Camp Update — August 16: The Alpha Role Just Got Less Crowded
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 17
Chris Olave made the big sideline catch from Tyler Shough in the joint practice with Jacksonville, and the rookie drafted to share his target load is now hurt. The June bet on his volume repeating looks stronger, not weaker.
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Chris Olave made the catch of Thursday's joint practice against Jacksonville, a big sideline grab on a deep shot from Tyler Shough, per Ross Jackson at Louisiana Sports. It came during Shough's sharpest stretch of the summer, and it was the kind of connection the entire New Orleans offense is being built around. Olave then sat Saturday's preseason opener with the rest of the starters, per WAFB and the Associated Press, which is exactly how a team handles its best player in August.
The June preview's core claim was about volume. Olave caught a hundred passes on a hundred 56 targets last season, a 29 percent target share, and target volume of that size is the most repeatable foundation a receiver can have. The preview said the talent was never the question, availability was, and he had just answered it with a full season. The two named risks were his health, including the managed recovery from the lung blood clot last winter, and the rookie Jordyn Tyson nibbling at the target share.
Both risks moved this week, in his favor. On health, last week's minor wrist scare produced no follow-up reporting at all, and we will be honest about what that means: the only signal is that he was out there at full speed making contested sideline catches, which is participation evidence rather than a medical report, but it is the evidence we have. On the target share, Tyson strained a hamstring in that same joint practice and will miss time, possibly into Week One, per Myles Simmons at NBC ProFootballTalk. That is bad news for the offense's ceiling and genuinely bad luck for the rookie, but it removes, at least for the season's opening stretch, the one player positioned to claim a slice of Olave's volume.
Does the June read hold? CONFIRMED — the bet was that a hundred-56-target foundation repeats, and this week the quarterback threw him the practice's signature ball while the main competition for targets went to the training room.
Next week, watch for any actual reporting on the wrist rather than inference from participation, and watch whether Olave plays a series in the second preseason game with Shough. We'll check next Sunday.
_Data via nflverse._
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