One of the New Orleans Saints’ brightest young stars wasn’t practicing at the team’s final minicamp session — instead, Chris Olave was watching from the sidelines with his right ankle taped up. After practice, Saints head coach Dennis Allen described the injury as “some little Achilles inflammation” and downplayed the severity of it.
Resting Olave makes sense. He’ll have plenty of time to heal up before training camp kicks off in late July, and the Saints will need him at full strength come September’s season-opening game with the Tennessee Titans. Overworking him in June wouldn’t be good for anyone involved. They’ve also taken it easy with the other two receivers on top of the depth chart. Michael Thomas (toe) has been limited to solo work and a few positional drills while Rashid Shaheed (groin) has been held out altogether.
So this was more of a well-earned respite for one of the team’s ascending young players. Olave is carrying a lot of momentum into his second year in the pros after his impressive rookie debut, having caught everything thrown his way this spring and looking to have improved on the contested catches that challenged him last year. We’ll keep tabs on his status but it doesn’t sound like he’s expecting any limitations when the Saints regroup in a month.
