Canal Street Chronicles
The situation is fluid due to off-season injury restrictions.
With OTAs fully underway one of the more interesting position groups for the New Orleans Saints is the tight end room. There’s actually a ton of talent in the position group but a couple of key pieces are on the shelf currently.
Taysom Hill, the Saints’ Swiss army knife, tore his ACL in Week 13 and Foster Moreau also suffered a knee injury but in the final game of the 2024 season. As reported by Nick Underhill, neither will be available to see any on-field action until camp at the earliest.
For Hill, that is likely a best case scenario. However, this leaves a lot of opportunity for the rest of the folks in that position group to put their best foot forward at OTAs.
Juwan Johnson is their clear number one of the available guys in my eyes. Not only is he an experienced player but the stats back it up with his 548 yards and 3 touchdowns last year. He’s a big body that plays the position similar to a wide receiver and apparently was also roommates with Saints rookie QB Tyler Shough at Oregon.
The Saints also added Jack Stoll this off-season in free agency. Stoll has been a bit of a journeyman but has spent plenty of time in the Philadelphia Eagles organization with some crossover time last season with Kellen Moore. He seems like a guy who will get down in the trenches and do some dirty work which is a nice complement to some of the other guys who are more of the pass-catching TEs.
In the 7th round of the NFL Draft the Saints picked Moliki Matavao from UCLA, who is 6’6 and 260 lbs. He only dropped one pass in 2024 and this alone would get him some snaps if I’m the decision-maker. Even with his large size, he can show off some impressive moves as seen below. Although he is a 7th round pick, he was a highly touted recruit in the transfer portal before going to UCLA and depth is key at this point with the injuries.
I think the fact that more folks haven’t been brought in to compete is a good sign that either Moreau and/or Hill should be good to go heading into camp which is great news for the depth there. Juwan Johnson is the likely starter going into camp but it will be good for the other guys to get familiar with getting reps in the system. Stoll having experience with Moore’s playbook should help him come along pretty quickly and take snaps if Moreau and Hill aren’t full go when the season kicks off. And if one or both of these depth guys pop maybe we will see Hill utilized in even MORE positions. I don’t know if he can play nose tackle but I wouldn’t hate to see him try.
