Chris Olave reached rare air in huge rookie season with Saints

Chris Olave joined rare company in his huge rookie season with the New Orleans Saints, matching the pace of several superstar wide receivers. One of the better stats you’ll find at Pro Football Focus is yards per route run — which directly reflects how many plays receivers were making in relation to how often they were on the field.

And Olave produced one of the best rookie seasons we’ve seen in this metric over the last decade. Fantasy Life’s Ian Hartitz observed that Olave ranked up there with the likes of Odell Beckham Jr. and Justin Jefferson, having posted the fifth-highest yards per routes run metric among qualifying players (first-year pros who were targeted 50 or more times).

Here’s how they stack up:

Odell Beckham Jr. (2014)

AP Photo/Tyler Kaufman

2.75 yards per route run

A.J. Brown (2019)

Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

2.67 yards per route run

Justin Jefferson (2020)

Jeffrey Becker-USA TODAY Sports

2.66 yards per route run

Ja'Marr Chase (2021)

Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

2.51 yards per route run

Chris Olave (2022)

Cary Edmondson-USA TODAY Sports

2.42 yards per route run

Story originally appeared on Saints Wire