The New Orleans Saints might not have found Mr. Right at quarterback with Tyler Shough last season, but 2026 showed that they see him as Mr. Right Now, getting Shough three wide receivers, as well as a tight end, in the 2026 NFL Draft. Jordan Tyson might have overlapping skills with Chris Olave, and Barion Brown & Bryce Lance definitely overlap, and what of Oscar Delp? There is a lot to explore with the 2026 New Orleans Saints rookie crop.
Round 1, Pick 8 Overall: Jordyn Tyson, WR
The following is an excerpt from our Round One Rookie Roundup, which you can find here.
TALENT
Jordyn Tyson puts defensive backs in absolute hell. There’s no other way to put it. His frenetic routes, his aggressive route breaks, everything he does puts defensive backs into a blender. He isn’t a complete receiver and has room to grow, which is the scary part. But he should be a fun part of the NFL immediately. Nearly every aspect of his game hits hard when you watch him on tape. The route running is impeccable, aggressive, and frenetic (if not the most technical). It’s rare to see a break put a defensive back on the grass, but I saw him do it multiple times. He’s also a fiend for contested catches (which worked well because Sam Leavitt was a sicko at throwing Tyson balls specifically to draw PI).
He’s a demon; there’s no other way to describe him, especially considering that his actions mostly make his opponents see hell in a way we haven’t experienced since Dante’s Inferno. Even if you manage to hang on for dear life as he puts you through the paces en route to the target, he still likely styles in your face with a ridiculous acrobatic catch, or if he gets it in the short area, he jukes you out of your shoes.
Tyson could use a bit of refinement, but my biggest fear is a curmudgeon getting their hands on him and making him tone it down. Let Jordyn be Jordyn, I say. And we saw this season when jarred lightning was finally set loose. He’s George Pickens 2.0, and if a team sees the vision, he could immediately pay dividends in fantasy leagues.
NFL Comparison: George Pickens
Draft Round: “Lottery” 1st Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Kellen Moore put two amazing weapons together for Tyler Shough in New Orleans, and two extremely fragile ones at that. He joins a wide receiver room that looks like a long-since-abandoned dynasty roster rather than a real NFL room. Despite that terrible room, the Saints ranked ninth in wide receiver targets in 2025, meaning that there is a lot of meat on that bone for Tyson. He and Olave are both best suited as high-end WR2s, so they should co-exist very well together. The Saints chunked off 156 targets for Chris Olave and 66 for Rashid Shaheed in just nine games (7.33 targets per game). If the Saints give Tyson Shaheed’s projected year-long volume, he comes out to 124 or 125 targets for Tyson in his rookie campaign.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Tyson is checking all the boxes as a wide receiver that I have interest in in fantasy football drafts. He is extremely talented (my WR2 in this draft class), the depth chart is a mess behind him, and he has a hyperfragile incumbent ahead of him. He also has an established quarterback and an offensive guru who built a wide receiver-friendly offense. I love Jordyn Tyson in redraft leagues, as you are likely to get him in the WR30s or early WR40s. At that price, I am buying all day.
Round 3, Pick 73 Overall: Oscar Delp, TE
TALENT
Delp is a lockdown blocker, but an awful route runner. He can’t find the holes in zones with a lick, and he frequently runs straight at defenders. His route running is terrible, and he can’t get open to save his life. He had one game with more than three catches in 2025, and his career high was 284 yards in 2023; he won’t do anything of value in any fantasy football league.
NFL Comparison: Josh Oliver
Draft Round: 6th Round
2026 OPPORTUNITY
There is a lot of buzz that there’s plenty to go around for Oscar Delp, but that’s simply not true. The Saints added three receivers in this draft who are all better at pass catching than Delp, as well as adding Travis Etienne and his career 40+ targets per season to incumbents Chris Olave & 100+ target tight end Juwan Johnson, and there isn’t much left for Delp to do in this offense except block his ass off. His best college season was 24 receptions, 284 yards, and three touchdowns.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
He’s TE3 in rookie draft ADP, and George Kittle, an all-time “outproducing his college production” outlier, outproduced him on a per-game basis in college. I well and truly mean it when I say that I have zero interest in Oscar Delp in any format, at all.
Round 4, Pick 136 Overall: Bryce Lance, WR
TALENT
The first thing that jumps off the tape for Lance is his long, athletic strides. He chews up the field seemingly without expending much in the way of effort. He uses this skill to be an excellent deep ball receiver, with plus ball tracking skills and good hands & body placement, allowing him to haul in big plays. That being said, he doesn’t offer a whole lot else outside of those two things. He’s okay underneath, but not very shifty; he’s just very fast (4.34 40-yard dash)
NFL Comparison: Marquez Valdes-Scantling
Draft Grade: Round 6
2026 OPPORTUNITY
The Saints lacked a deep threat after they traded Rashid Shaheed halfway through the season. And now, they have two (more on that in a second with Barion Brown). Lance is likely to get the deep targets that Shaheed vacated, which the Saints tried to continue to reproduce in the second half of 2025, with little result. The Saints threw the ball 20+ air yards downfield 73 times last season, the sixth-highest mark in the league. So, there are plenty of opportunities for Bryce Lance to have himself a nice little season if he and Shough can get on the same page.
Unfortunately, that’s the hard part. Per his playerprofiler.com page, Shough is one of the worst deep ball throwers in the league last season; Shough ranked 36th in deep ball catchable pass rate and 35th in deep ball completion percentage.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
Bryce Lance will have fantasy football-relevant weeks in 2026, as evidenced by the Saints’ unceasing desire to chuck it downfield, come hell or high water. Unfortunately, unless Shough takes a huge step forward, Lance will struggle to find relevance in rostered leagues. He’s a high-variance option who can win you weeks, and a Shough (QB18)/(WR106) is a crazy cheap QB3/WR7 stack in your best ball leagues, and one you can target with either an early Chris Olave or Jordyn Tyson pick.
Round 6, Pick 190 Overall: Barion Brown, WR
TALENT
Barion Brown is a gadget guy extraordinaire. He’s an expert kick returner, and a fun yards after the catch player. The LSU Tigers used him almost exclusively underneath, but the screen merchant could take a ball past the whole defense. Unfortunately, he cannot run routes. Like, at all. I doubt he has one, but his Reception Perception Christmas tree would be redder than the John Birch Society’s nightmares. But that isn’t his skill set. He is in the NFL to do fun things when the ball is gift-wrapped into his hands, and nothing else.
2026 OPPORTUNITY
Brown is currently looking at being the sixth- or seventh-pass option at best on the Saints.
2026 FANTASY FOOTBALL OUTLOOK
I don’t have interest in him as he won’t get enough opportunities to produce to matter.
