Who Should I Start? Brandin Cooks or Chris Olave

Saturday, April 25, 5:25 AM

New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave finished 2025 as the fantasy WR6, largely on the strength of a 27.3% team target share, and he came into the offseason as the undisputed top option in New Orleans. The addition of Travis Etienne Jr. in free agency will add a wrinkle to Kellen Moore's evolving offense, but having topped a 10% target share only once in his four professional seasons, he posed no major threat to Olave's week-winning volume. The same can not be said about some of the talent added through the first two nights of the NFL Draft. The Saints selected Arizona State wide receiver Jordyn Tyson with the eighth overall pick and added Georgia tight end Oscar Delp in the third round. While durability concerns shaded Tyson's profile heading into the draft, many believe he has the most upside of any receiver in a deep 2026 class, and Delp is thought to have untapped potential as a pass catcher after being utilized predominantly inline by the Bulldogs. Since being selected in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft, Olave has never faced significant target competition. Even while missing 13 games across his first four seasons, Olave's 111.5 targets per season radically outpaced the 53.5 per year average of the team's WR2 over that time. While the Saints have long involved their tight ends and running backs in the passing game, the offense they are building around Tyler Shough will provide answers at all levels of the field and make him less reliant on any one player. While Olave still has a claim as the most talented receiver on the team, the 9.4 targets per game that he earned, partly out of necessity, in 2025 could very well stand as a career-high.