Chris Olave — Week 1: Ten Catches, and Fourth and Three in Overtime
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Olave caught ten of thirteen targets for a hundred eighty-two yards Sunday, with a forty-seven-yard catch to start the comeback from 21–0, a forty-two-yard catch to the Detroit nine to set up the tying touchdown, and a twenty-yard catch on fourth and three from the New Orleans twenty-seven in overtime. The play-by-play notes he was injured on the forty-two-yarder and returned before the end of regulation; his thirteen targets were worth plus thirteen point seven expected points, the highest figure for any player in the game, in a 31–30 overtime loss to the Lions.
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Fourth and three at the New Orleans 27, three 13 left in overtime, Saints down 31 to 24, no huddle. Tyler Shough went deep right to Chris Olave for 20 yards to the 47. That throw was worth +3.3 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position, and a fourth-down conversion from your own end is about as much as 20 yards can be worth. Four snaps later the Saints were at the Detroit eight, and two snaps after that they had scored.
That was the last of 13 targets. The first came with 13 16 left in the second quarter, so Olave went the whole first quarter without a throw his way; the Saints ran only five pass plays in it. The line: 10 catches, a hundred 82 yards, no touchdowns, +13.7 expected points on the 13 throws, the highest for any player on either team, and 234 air yards. The three incompletions were all in the second quarter — one short, two deep with 36 42 yards in the air. After that he caught everything. The 47: first and 10 at the New Orleans 21, eight 49 left in the third, down 21 to nothing, deep right to the Detroit 32, +3.2. The 42: second and 10 at the New Orleans 49, a minute 23 left in regulation, down 24 to 17, deep middle to the Detroit nine, worth 14 points of win probability, and the play-by-play notes he was injured on it, with a declined pass-interference flag. Juwan Johnson scored on the next snap. The play-by-play notes he had returned by the 27-second mark.
The reporting from the sideline, per Katherine Terrell at ESPN: he went into the injury tent and came out of it holding his helmet, back among the receivers. Nothing in that names a diagnosis, and this show will not add one. Where he sat in the passing game is not in doubt — 13 targets on 57 Saints throws, with Travis Etienne and Devaughn Vele next at nine each, Noah Fant eight, Johnson seven. Six targets before halftime produced three catches for 40 yards; the seven after it were seven catches for a hundred 42.
Back in June the preview's case for Olave was that a WR6 season had been built on sustained target volume as the clear first option, and that the thing which had rarely arrived together for him was the role and the availability — about 81 percent of games played. Sunday had both, plus a play on which he was hurt and then was not. One game does not settle the availability half, and it is the half that matters. New Orleans is at the Ravens on Sunday the twentieth. The share was there; watch whether he is.
_Data via nflverse._
When Chris Olave's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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