Bet on talent with Chris Olave

Chris Olave enters the 2025 fantasy football season with some legitimate red flags.

There are concerns about his ability to stay healthy throughout a full season, suffering multiple concussions last season and having previous concussions during his playing career going back to college. Then there are concerns about the QB situation in New Orleans, with some less-than-ideal candidates to start that include this year's second round rookie, Tyler Shough, last season's fifth round pick, Spencer Rattler, and a former fourth round pick in Jake Haener.

Obviously, that has led a precipitous fall in ADP for Olave, who is now going at the 6-7 turn in many drafts.

Despite all that, I believe there's room for optimism for Chris Olave in 2025, especially in PPR leagues. Here's why.

WR2 production profile with WR1 upside

Chris Olave isn't a stranger to bad quarterback play, as anyone who's followed the Saints post-Drew Brees could tell you. And yet, all he has done, when healthy, is perform.

In 37 career games where Chris Olave has played 25 or more snaps, he's averaged over five catches for 69 yards, while scoring 10 total touchdowns during those games (13.6 PPR points per game). That's quite the floor for someone going as late as he is. And even last season - which was clearly a disappointment given the time missed - he had two games with over 10 targets, including the game against the Los Angeles Chargers where he was targeted a whopping 14 times.

That type of volume, mixed with his ability to make plays in the middle and downfield areas, can lead to week-to-week spikes that can carry your team to victory if the cards fall right.

Competition? What competition?

The Saints prioritized (is that the right word?) finding their quarterback of the future and their offensive line in the draft, leaving old friend Brandin Cooks as the primary addition to the skill position players. While Cooks could play a role on this team, it will be as a WR3 and not meaningfully impacting Olave's target share.

That leaves Alvin Kamara - who will absolutely catch passes - to handle the short average depth of target (ADOT) stuff, while also-healthy-again Rashid Shaheed will be their home run hitter as their WR2.

The middle of the field is wide open for Chris Olave, and I would expect he will be looked to early and often as their chain-mover.

Kellen Moore has a history of producing high wide receiver finishes, and Chris Olave will be the one to benefit

New head coach Kellen Moore has spent six years as an offensive coordinator across three teams (Cowboys, Chargers and Eagles). In that time, his offenses produced eight players that finished in the top 24 at the wide receiver position, including all of his number one options as wide receiver.

Chris Olave is currently going as the WR34 on Underdog (half PPR) and Drafters (full PPR), while on DraftKings, which is all full PPR, he is going as WR35. And it doesn't get much better when you get off the best ball sites - WR32 on Sleeper, WR34 on Yahoo and all the way down to WR39 on ESPN.

Make the bet on Chris Olave in 2025

As you can probably guess, I have Chris Olave ahead of his positional rankings, currently at WR31 to account for some of that health risk while still being in front of the pack to ensure he's a part of my fantasy teams this season.

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