Saints DL Bryan Bresee Suffers Torn ACL

If Bresee did indeed tear his ACL, it would prevent him from taking the field in his fourth NFL season. The Clemson product joined the Saints as the 29th overall pick in the 2023 draft. That was one of the selections New Orleans received from Denver in the teams’ Sean Payton trade.

As a first-rounder, Bresee’s rookie contract came with a fifth-year option for 2027. The Saints exercised it in April and are now in position to pay Bresee $13.93MM next year. In the meantime, it appears he will face a long rehab process.

This is not the first major knee injury for Bresee, who tore his ACL as a college sophomore in 2021. He came back strong the next season – his last with the Tigers – to play 10 games and earn an All-ACC nod. Between then and now, injuries had not been a real problem for Bresee. He opened his Saints tenure with back-to-back 17-game seasons, and though he did sit out twice with a less severe knee injury last year, those are his only absences in the pros so far.

Forty-nine games into his career, Bresee has notched 19 tackles for loss, 14.5 sacks and 12 pass deflections. He came off the bench exclusively as a rookie, but he made 11 starts in his second year and became a full-time starter last season. He played a personal-best 69% of defensive snaps in 2025, though it did not lead to gaudy counting stats. He recorded 37 tackles, eight quarterback hits, five TFL, three PDs and 2.5 sacks. Pro Football Focus, which has never given Bresee high grades, rated his performance a below-average 87th among 127 interior defensive linemen.

While it looks as if the Saints will go 2026 without Bresee, they did fortify their interior line when they chose Christen Miller in the second round of this year’s draft. Miller could take on a big role along with the likes of Davon Godchaux, Nathan Shepherd and Vernon Broughton. New Orleans spent a third-rounder on Broughton in 2025, but a hip injury limited him to one game in his rookie season.