Chris
Olave.
Chris
Olave.
Ohio State· 6'0"· 187 lb· 4.39s 40
"Four years of polish beat projection: New Orleans traded up for the most NFL-ready route runner in the class and got 1,000-yard-caliber play whenever he stayed on the field."Pre-draft read
Olave was the smoothest route runner in the 2022 class, a 6-foot, 187-pound senior who won with tempo, technique and a 4.39 forty rather than brute size. The base trait is gliding separation: he gears down and accelerates out of breaks without tipping routes, and cornerbacks routinely lost a step the moment his hips committed.
The secondary trait is the deep ball. He tracks it over either shoulder, stacks corners late and finishes at full speed, which made him Ohio State's most trusted vertical threat across four seasons. The cap is physicality — press corners with real size could knock him off his stem and he offers little after the catch beyond pure speed. The signature is effortless speed married to four years of route polish.
Vertical play-action passing game that lets him run deep overs, posts and go routes off play fakes, with route freedom in the intermediate game
Year 1: starting Z with manufactured touches and deep-shot volume. Ceiling: multi-time 1,000-yard field-tilter who dictates safety depth.
A physical, West Coast possession scheme that asks its receivers to win contested intermediate throws and block in the run game every snap.
New Orleans cycled coordinators and quarterbacks around him, yet his best football came whenever the deep ball was a real part of the plan.
Chris "Smooth" Olave Full 2021 Season
Senior-season reel: 65 catches and thirteen touchdowns in his final year at Ohio State.
Chris Olave Career Highlights 2018-2022
Four years of Buckeye tape showing the route polish and deep speed.
Chris Olave Top Plays of the 2022 Regular Season
Official NFL package of his 1,042-yard rookie year in New Orleans.
Olave entered the 2022 class as the most experienced top receiver prospect in years, a four-year Ohio State contributor who scored 35 touchdowns and left as one of the most productive wideouts in program history. After a quiet freshman year he posted 48 catches for 840 yards and twelve scores as a sophomore, starred in the shortened 2020 season with 50 for 729 in seven games, and returned for a senior year — turning down the 2021 draft — to catch 65 for 936 and thirteen touchdowns.
The evaluation centered on ceiling versus floor. The floor was obvious: a 4.39 combine forty confirmed the speed, the route running was NFL-ready and the production against top competition spanned four seasons. The ceiling questions were physical. At 187 pounds he struggled against grabby, physical corners, offered modest run-after-catch and had never been the bully of a secondary. Scouts saw a high-end No. 2 with WR1 weeks more than a true alpha.
Boards placed him safely in the first round, generally behind London and Wilson as the third receiver. New Orleans, desperate for a complement after years of receiver instability, traded up to No. 11 and took him — paying for four years of proven, translatable tape rather than projecting traits.
- 01
Route-running polish
Four years of technique work show in his releases, tempo changes and hip sink; he separates at the break point as well as any receiver in the class.
- 02
Verified deep speed
A 4.39 forty at the combine confirmed the tape: he stacks corners and finishes vertical routes at full stride without losing the ball.
- 03
Sustained production
Thirty-five touchdowns over four seasons at Ohio State, including thirteen as a senior, against the best defensive backs the Big Ten could offer.
- 04
Ball tracking
He adjusts to off-target deep balls naturally and wins over either shoulder, a rare trait that turns imperfect quarterbacks into deep passers.
- 05
Experience and maturity
He returned for a senior season when he could have declared, and arrived in the NFL with four years of big-game reps already banked.
- 01
Play strength
At 187 pounds he can be re-routed by physical press corners and rarely wins through contact at the catch point.
- 02
Run after catch
His yards after contact are limited; he is a glider who goes down on first contact more often than he breaks it.
- 03
Contested catches
His catch radius and in-traffic finishing are average, so quarterbacks cannot simply throw him open against tight coverage.
- 04
Capped ceiling
Scouts questioned whether a lean, speed-based receiver could ever be a true alpha WR1 rather than an excellent complementary weapon.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.39sp50
- Vertical
- 32inp50
- Broad jump
- 124inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- —rep
| Yr | Team | G | Rec | Yds | TD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Ohio State | 14 | 12 | 197 | 3 |
| 2019 | Ohio State | 14 | 48 | 840 | 12 |
| 2020 | Ohio State | 7 | 50 | 729 | 7 |
| 2021 | Ohio State | 12 | 65 | 936 | 13 |
| Career | — | 41 | 175 | 2702 | 35 |
2020 (50/729/7) and 2021 (65/936/13) verified against cfbstats.com player pages; 2018 (12/197/3) and 2019 (48/840/12) verified via his Wikipedia season table. cfbstats credits seven receiving TDs in 2020; some sources list eight. Career line is the cfbstats-consistent sum of the four seasons.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Technician with deep speed and pristine route craft who carved out a decade of efficient 1,000-yard production.
The ceiling outcome: a smooth, polished route runner who produces Pro Bowl seasons despite unstable quarterback situations.
Field-stretching speed merchant whose talent was undeniable but whose body could never stay on the field long enough to cash it in.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Chris Olave has played two seasons for the New Orleans Saints, establishing himself as a primary receiving target. He has recorded over 1,000 receiving yards in one of his first two seasons.
Olave delivered on the floor immediately and then pushed past it. As a rookie in 2022 he posted 72 catches for 1,042 yards and four touchdowns in 15 games despite unstable quarterback play, then improved to 87 for 1,123 and five scores in 2023. The physical concerns surfaced as durability concerns instead: a concussion-marred 2024 limited him to eight games and 400 yards, the first real interruption of his career.
The bounce-back was emphatic. Healthy again in 2025, Olave produced the best season of his career — 100 receptions, 1,163 yards and nine touchdowns in 16 games — and New Orleans locked him into a multi-year extension in July 2026. The honest verdict: a clear hit at No. 11 and arguably the best career of the three Ohio State receivers in the league. He was never the alpha some wanted, but four seasons of 1,000-yard-caliber play when healthy is exactly what the Saints traded up for.
Data note: from Washington