Devaughn Vele — Week 1: Nine Targets, a Touchdown, and the Thirty-One
2026 NFL Season · Half-PPR Scoring · Monday, Sep 14
Vele caught seven of nine targets for sixty-nine yards and the one-yard touchdown that made it 21–14 late in the third quarter, a score he had set up himself by drawing a twenty-one-yard pass-interference flag at the Detroit one. His thirty-one-yard catch on third and five from the Detroit forty-seven was worth nearly eleven points of win probability, and his nine targets tied Travis Etienne for second on the Saints, in a 31–30 overtime loss to the Lions.
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Devaughn Vele's touchdown Sunday took two plays, and the first one does not show up in his line. Third and nine at the Detroit 22 with 40 seconds left in the third quarter, Saints down 21 to seven: Tyler Shough went deep right for Vele, incomplete, and the flag on Rock Ya-Sin for pass interference put the ball at the one. Next snap, first and goal, 34 seconds left, short left to Vele for one yard and the touchdown. That catch was worth +0.5 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position, and from the one there is not much left to add — but it was the score that made it a one-possession game.
The bigger number came in the fourth. Third and five at the Detroit 47, 10 oh three left, Saints down 21 to 14: deep right to Vele, 28 yards in the air, 31 yards to the Detroit 16. +3.0 expected points and +10.8 points of win probability — the chance of winning before and after a play — which made it the most valuable throw of his afternoon. The drive stalled at the 10 and ended in a 28-yard field goal. The line: nine targets, seven catches, 69 yards, one touchdown, +4.9 expected points on the nine, second on the Saints behind Chris Olave. The catches went nine, four, six, one, seven, 31 11; the two incompletions were first and 10 in the first quarter and second and nine in the second. He caught his lone third-down target. Five targets came before halftime for three catches and 19 yards; four after for four catches, 50 yards and the score.
Where he sat: nine targets on 57 Saints throws, tied with Travis Etienne behind Olave's 13, ahead of Noah Fant's eight and Juwan Johnson's seven. On the drive that tied the game with a minute 13 left, his 11-yard catch on first down from the 38 was the completion before the 42-yarder to Olave. And the two-point try that would have won it went to Bryce Lance.
Back in June the preview had Vele at WR95 across nine games, and the whole read was that he had never established target volume. That is the read Sunday contradicts, and it should lead: nine targets, seven catches, a touchdown, the second-best expected points figure on the team. One game is one game, and Alvin Kamara was inactive, per John Sigler at Saints Wire, and the Saints ran 62 pass plays, which inflates everyone. Still, nine is a number the preview did not have. New Orleans is at the Ravens on Sunday the twentieth. The question is whether the nine comes back when the passing game is 35 throws instead of 57.
_Data via nflverse._
When Devaughn Vele's week moves the numbers, you'll know — every episode, in one weekly email.
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