Former Ohio State Buckeyes Star Gets Blunt on Cloudy NFL Future

Former Ohio State Buckeyes wide receiver Chris Olave has heard his name floated in trade speculation quite a bit this offseason, but he will still be heading into the 2025 NFL campaign as a member of the New Orleans Saints.

Whether or not the Saints ever actually considered trading Olave is another story. They may have simply received some phone calls from other teams and rebuffed them. Nevertheless, Olave's future in New Orleans is in question, as he became eligible for a contract extension this offseason and not much seems to have moved on that end.

Olave was asked about his status with the Saints going into the new season, and he provided a rather candid answer on the situation.

"I'm not really worried about that. I mean, of course, I want to stay here a long time, get an extension going, but just coming off the season I had, just out for the year, I'm not really looking at it right now," Olave told reporters. "I feel like I've got to prove myself to be able to get that type of money or get that type of deal, so like I said, I'm not worried about it. I know it's going to come, but just taking it day by day and try to be consistent every day to be able to stand out, to be able to make it easy on them to offer that type of deal."

Olave suffered a pair of concussions last season, limiting him to just eight games. Given that the 25-year-old has now sustained five concussions since is Ohio State days, his NFL future in general is a bit cloudy. We have seen players forced into early retirement because of this before.

When healthy, Olave is terrific. He posted back-to-back 1,000-yard campaigns to begin his professional career, topping out at 1,123 yards in 2023. Last year, however, he managed just 32 catches for 400 yards and a touchdown.

That being said, a big season in 2025 should absolutely put Olave on track for a fresh deal with the Saints.

Olave spent four years with the Buckeyes between 2018 and 2021, leading the Big Ten in receiving touchdowns twice. He was then selected by New Orleans with the 11th overall pick of the 2022 NFL Draft.