Katherine Terrell | ESPN19 de oct, 2023, 14:00Lectura: 6 min.
Wide receiver with Cuban roots Chris Olave is honing his NFL skills, one sensational catch at a time.
METAIRIE, La. — The wide receiver of the New Orleans Saints, Chris Olaveis still learning how to be great his second year in the NFL.
Olave can make big plays that go viral: Toe-footed catches, jumping catches, and circus traps with one hand.
New Orleans Saints wide receiver Chris Olave makes a catch off Houston Texans safety Jimmie Ward.Eric Gay/AP
At times, the 23-year-old, who leads the Saints in receptions (32) and receiving yards (414), can make tough plays look like an art form.
“I’ve seen Chris work on it a lot in practice,” the wide receiver said. Rashid Shaheed. “This offseason he spent a lot of time perfecting those types of catches. Those types of catches are never easy and the fact that he makes them look so simple shows the type of talent he has.”
As the Saints (3-3) prepare to host the Jacksonville Jaguars (4-2) on “Thursday Night Football” (8:15 p.m. ET, Prime Video), Olave gets a chance to show off his playmaking skills in primetime.
The faltering offense could benefit from the boost, as the Saints rank 20th in yards per game (312.5) and 24th in points (18.2).
“We have a lot of weapons,” Olave said. “I don’t understand why we’re not as explosive, but it’s everyone in the building. We know what we have, we know what we can do, but we have to connect everything.”
Saints wide receiver Michael Thomassaid there are pieces of the puzzle that have worked, like Olave’s catch over a defender’s head in their 20-13 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday. He wants the Saints to play like this all the time.
“Those are what I call desperation plays,” Thomas said after the game. “When a player is on me and the quarterback gives me a chance to make the play, that’s desperate. It’s a sense of urgency. That’s what we need to build up, and that’s how every player needs to play.”
Olave finished with seven receptions for 96 yards against the Texans, but he also made some mistakes.
“Communication has to be better,” coach Dennis Allen said of the offense. “I think we have to work on that with the coaching staff. I think the quarterbacks and receivers have to do a better job of making sure they’re on the same page.”
Progress hasn’t been completely linear for Olave this season. For every flashy play, he has also had setbacks. What Olave lacks in his development is the consistency to minimize mishaps in their actions.
Their lowest point came during a 26-9 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Week 4. Not only was it the team’s worst offensive performance of the season, but it was also the worst of Olave’s NFL career.
Olave, who came into the game with 302 receiving yards (sixth best), had a catch for the first time since his freshman year at Ohio State in 2018. He didn’t handle it well. When he watched the film later, he noticed that his energy was visibly low on the broadcast.
“I knew I was wrong in that situation,” Olave said. “I feel like I came back and did a lot better the next week, despite not having a very good game, just being in the game, showing support for my teammates. I feel like that carried over into the last two weeks.”
The corridor Alvin Kamara He took him aside to explain the correct way to do things.
“He and I talk, we always talk, but he and I had a conversation because that’s not what he’s left on video,” Kamara said. “I told him, ‘I’m not mad at you for being frustrated, but there are certain ways to show it.’ He knows that. He’s a professional. So I don’t have much to say to him, but he corrected it.”
Olave said Thomas, whom he has leaned on since entering the NFL, also criticized him.
“That’s what real people do,” Olave said. “She looked me in the eyes and told me you’re better than that. I respect that a lot.”
Olave admitted that sometimes he tends to show his emotions on the surface. It’s something he tries to work on in times when things aren’t going well.
“It’s been frustrating,” Olave said of the loss to the Bucs. “But we can’t let our emotions get the best of us. That happened to me on Sunday and I had to look in the mirror. My closest friends looked me in the eyes and told me that’s not the way to do it.”
Olave said he believes he began to take a step forward in the team’s 34-0 victory against the New England Patriots in Week 5, scoring his only touchdown of the season, which he celebrated with a dance and a big smile.
Despite the score, Olave had two receptions for 12 yards.
“It’s hard, just not being productive. It was definitely eye-opening,” Olave said of the two-week period. “It was just a little bit of adversity, you can bend, but I didn’t break in that situation. It opened my eyes a little bit. There’s going to be games like that, you’re not always going to have a 100-yard game. … You just have to keep winning, that’s what the main thing.”
Receivers coach Kodi Burns said he knows Olave is “very critical of himself” and expects a high level of production each week, but he has to learn that sometimes the ball doesn’t come to him.
“A lot of times, even if you’re in the game plan, the play can dictate or the coverage can dictate where the ball goes up,” Burns told him. “But also the message to him is that each and every week in the NFL, it’s not like college. You don’t get as many opportunities, so you have to make those opportunities count.”
Coach Dennis Allen and others challenged Olave in the offseason to make more contested catches, and their work has paid off.
He juggled and caught with one hand in Week 2 against the Carolina Panthers and then he spiked the ball with excitement, forgetting that it was a live ball in play.
He caught the ball one-handed in one-on-one coverage on the sideline and stayed in bounds for a 27-yard gain in Week 3 against the Green Bay Packers. There was also the contested jumping catch against the Texans.
“Just reps. A lot of reps. There’s really not much to explain,” Olave said of his preparation. “A lot of work with the tennis ball. That helped me a lot.”
He wants to be that player consistently. Coaches said in the offseason that they wanted him to develop that as well after he finished last season 18th with 1,042 yards (while missing two games), becoming the third Saints player to record more than 1,000 receiving yards in his rookie season.
“When we’re down, we have to make those plays,” Olave said. “As receivers, we want those plays in those situations. We want the ball when we’re down. We have to attack, especially on contested catches. That’s something we emphasize.”
Burns said no one is a finished product in the NFL, and that certainly applies to a second-year player, but he knows Olave will grow from those difficult conversations.
“Honestly, it’s better that it happened early,” Burns said. “You recognize the problem, you address it, you have those difficult conversations and the fact that he recovered is really a testament to him, how he was raised and who he is as a person.”
Burns said he noticed Olave’s change in behavior entering Patriots week, and noted that he knew he would get back to normal.
“Many of the best receivers to ever play the game have had a week or two…without as much [producción] as they wanted,” Burns said.
“For us to be good, we need Olave to be good.”
2023-10-19 17:00:00
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