Canal Street Chronicles
How the Saints pass catchers performed in 2024
The 2024 season was a turbulent one for the New Orleans Saints receiving corps to say the least. The season started with Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed being the top two options, but neither player made it past Week 9 before suffering a season ending injury. Prior to the injuries, Olave was having another solid season, catching 32 passes for 400 yards in 8 games, (which still wound up being tops among wide receivers for the Saints in 2024) but Shaheed was in the midst of a breakout year.
He gained 73+ yards in 4 of 6 games and also caught three touchdowns while averaging 17.5 yards per reception. Shaheed as beginning to emerge as one of the league's top deep threats through the first 6 weeks of the season but suffered a knee injury in October which ended his season. He should be good to go by OTAs in 2025 however as the Saints will surely need him back in the lineup given the way the offense looked without him.
Once Olave was lost for the season, the Saints turned to free agency and young prospects to fill the void. Marquez Valdes-Scantling was brought in after being released by the Bills, and immediately had an impact, catching 2 touchdowns and going for 100+ yards in his second game as a Saint. MVS’s production did tail off a bit towards the end of the year, as he gained just 33 yards in his final two games, but for a 5-week period late in the year MVS looked like a true weapon in the Saints offense, one worthy of bringing back and seeing what he can do with the full offense around him.
First- and second-year receivers Kevin Austin, Jr., Bub Means, and Mason Tipton all saw much more action that was expected this year due to the injuries to players ahead of them on the depth chart. Each played in 7+ games and caught 9+ passes for 99+ yards on the year.
The Saints tight ends had a pretty good year in 2024. Juwan Johnson set a career high with 548 receiving yards which led the team, while Foster Moreau came within 8 yards and 2 receptions of setting career highs in those categories and led the team with 5 touchdown catches. Both Johnson and Moreau played in all 17 games as well, the only skill position players on the Saints to do so.
The Saints receivers had a tough year, but the bright side is most of them are still young and should all be healthy for the start of the year. The turnover also helped them find potential contributors for this year like MVS and also gave many young players valuable playing time early in their career. If the Saints choose to add another big name through the draft like Tetairoa McMillan or Luther Burden III, their receiving corps should be primed for a big season under new offensive minded...
