Chris Olave Camp Update — August 31: The Target Competition Went to IR
2026 NFL Season · Monday, Aug 31
Chris Olave came through Sunday's cutdown named first among five receivers on the initial fifty-three, and the rookie drafted to share his target load, Jordyn Tyson, was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return. Olave did not play in the preseason finale, and the winter wrist issue got no reporting either way.
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Chris Olave came through cut day exactly the way a team's best receiver should: named first among the five receivers kept on the initial 53, per Grant Chachere at Saints News Network, with no injury designation and no mention on any reserve list in the team's Sunday announcement. The news, again, happened around him. Jordyn Tyson, the eighth overall pick drafted to claim a share of the target load, was placed on injured reserve with a designation to return, per the team's announcement — ineligible for at least the first four games. What was a reported timeline a week ago is now a filed transaction.
The room behind him kept contracting. Trey Palmer and Jalen Cropper were waived Sunday, Mason Tipton went to reserve/PUP, and Brock Rechsteiner sits on the reserve/suspended list, per the team's announcement. Then Monday, Adam Schefter at ESPN reported that Kevin Austin Jr. will be waived — a move reported but not yet processed. If it goes through, the active receivers behind Olave are Devaughn Vele, Bryce Lance and Barion Brown.
Last week's episode left two things to check. Did he play a series with Tyler Shough in the finale against Dallas? No — Kellen Moore rested Shough and the rest of the starters, and the team's recap of the 27 to 24 win records no Olave statistics, so the finale gave him no game rep either. And did any actual reporting surface on the winter wrist issue? Also no. Nothing in the week touched it, and to be clear about what Sunday's list does and doesn't say: absence from injured reserve is a roster fact, not a medical clearance.
The thread, for anyone new here: our June preview built Olave's case on volume — a hundred 56 targets last season — with Tyson the one player positioned to take a slice of it. That case ends August stronger than it started, and by transaction rather than inference: the foundation untouched, the nearest competition shelved for at least the first four games by the roster filing itself. We'll check back as Week One comes into focus.
_Data via nflverse._
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