METAIRIE, La. — Anyone who has spent some time with the New Orleans Saints’ wide receivers this offseason might notice something about the group: Nobody goes by their given names.
Saints wide receivers coach Keith “Dub” Williams, one of the few staff holdovers from last season, has made deep connections with this group. So it was easy for him to start handing out new names.
Even Brandin Cooks, who signed with the Saints after stops with the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys, has a history with Williams dating back to when Cooks was a teenager. Williams simply calls Cooks “209,” the area code for their shared hometown of Stockton, California.
Williams said Mason Tipton is “Attorney Tipton,” because he’s “super smart” and played for Yale. Veteran Cedrick Wilson Jr. is “The Professor.” Dante Pettis is “Harry Potter” because he “runs routes like a wizard.”
Rashid Shaheed is simply “Sheed,” which is also his handle on his social media accounts.
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“He’s like Prince,” Williams said, referring to the late musician who simply went by one name.
Williams, who turned down other job opportunities to stay in New Orleans, said the group’s bond is one of the things that excites him about this season. He noticed it in minicamp after the rest of the wide receiver group defended rookie Moochie Dixon. When Williams started to get on Dixon about a dropped catch, the rest of the receivers told him to give him a break.
“They love each other,” Williams said. “There’s no envy, there’s no ego. The egos are checked in at the door. … It’s a great group. I really enjoy driving into work. I know what I’m going to get every day from each one collectively and so they just work.”
Yet Williams knows the camaraderie will only go so far. The Saints finished the 2024 season ranked No. 24 in the league with 3,730 receiving yards. It was a season that was difficult for a large portion of the group because of injuries, and how the receivers will bounce back is one of major the questions facing the group.
But Cooks, who dealt with a knee infection last season that limited him to 10 games and career lows of 26 catches for 29 yards, said everyone is starting “0-0” this offseason.
“It don’t matter what you did the previous year,” Cooks said. “It’s a new slate for us and you can call us the underdog or whatever the case may be, but we putting in our work and we’ll let our actions talk come Sundays during the season.”
Shaheed, the team’s best kick returner and deep threat, started last season with three touchdowns but went on injured reserve after tearing his meniscus in Week 6. While those injuries might have opened the door for Bub Means in his rookie season, an ankle sprain also ended his year early in Week 8.
Wide receiver Chris Olave played in eight games after sustaining two concussions and consulted specialists at the end of the season.
“It was tough,” Olave said “I ain’t never really sat out that long or been able to not play football, so that was really my first major injury and sitting out eight or nine games was tough for me. Just not being able to go to practice or go to meetings with my guys was the worst part, but … I feel like I’m ready. I was training and lifting and everything in December, so I feel like I’m good.”
New assistant wide receivers coach Kyle Valero, who was with first-year coach Kellen Moore on the Philadelphia Eagles staff last season, was the one who came up with a nickname for Olave: “The ninja with the smoke bombs.”
According to Valero and Williams, it’s because one second Olave is there and the next he’s gone.
“You’re next to him and then he throws a smoke bomb and it clears and he’s five steps ahead of you,” Williams said. “Nothing in his body language changed, it’s just the smoke bomb cleared. … You don’t know what happened.”
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Williams said some players, like Shaheed, simply look fast due to their movements. Olave glides across the field instead, making defenders think he’s moving slower than he actually is.
“He’s such a glider in terms of his movement pattern that normally doesn’t equate to a very, very fast player, which he also is,” Williams said. “And so he’s definitely a ninja with some smoke bombs.”
The Saints have ample salary cap space to sign another veteran receiver if needed, but Williams said he’s happy with the makeup of the group right now.
“I’m very, very satisfied, excited about the guys we have,” Williams said. “… They’re fast, they’re quick, they can catch and they’re versatile. They can run every route. They’re not just slots in and not just outside.”
When asked about the general makeup of the group, Williams said he didn’t feel like they were outmuscled when blocking defensive backs last season. The three receivers assumed to be the top targets in 2025 — Cooks, Olave and Shaheed — are 6-foot or shorter. He used a basketball analogy when discussing the pros and cons of height, saying a fast wide receiver still has an advantage over a taller DB.
“It’s not basketball where if [Kyrie Irving] played LeBron [James] 1-on-1, you might be concerned for Kyrie because he’s got to guard LeBron. But football … the wideout doesn’t have to guard the guy. The 6-2 guy has to keep up with the fast guy, and so if you’re skillful and talented and can catch, then you’re going to be open.”
Cooks said he knows the public opinion about the lack of height in the room, but it comes down to one thing: “Can you break your guy in front of you?”
“I think a lot of us can do that, so there’s a lot of narrative: There’s not a tall, there’s not a big guy, but we all can separate and so it doesn’t matter the similarities that we got,” Cooks said. “We can all play in any space.”
