Who Dat? Burners Olave, Shaheed make good
In Who Dat Country, two speedsters from San Diego are as popular as jambalaya and gumbo.
Building upon their bright NFL rookie seasons, receivers Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed enlivened the Saints’ 2023 opener Sunday by running past Titans defenders in a 16-15 victory inside New Orleans’ dome.
Shaheed scored the game’s only TD by lulling and blowing by cornerback Sean Murphy-Bunting, a 26-year-old who had big plays in Tampa Bay’s Super Bowl-winning season three years ago. Assisted by Derek Carr’s pump fake, Shaheed gathered the Saints newcomer’s 19-yard pass alone in the end zone and flipped the ball to a fan.
Quick to greet the undrafted Shaheed, who played for coach John Anderson at Mt. Carmel High School in Rancho Peñasquitos, was Olave, the 2022 first-round draftee who turned a big season under coach Chris Hauser at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos into an Ohio State scholarship.
San Diego County prep coaches who look to teach old lessons in a new way ought to break down film of Shaheed, 25, and Olave, 23.
Sunday, for instance, Shaheed displayed the resilience that enabled him to rebound from the torn ACL the four-time Weber State All-American kick returner sustained soon before he turned pro.
On Sunday’s first play,
Shaheed caught the kickoff and angled left toward the sideline only for Titans defender Amani Hooker to punch the ball loose and wrest it away for a turnover near the sideline.
Shaheed’s response was impressive.
He caught five passes for 89 yards and three first downs. In addition to his third-quarter touchdown, he salted the victory by catching Carr’s 41-yard pass and taking a jet sweep 6 yards around end.
The end of the sweep will enable San Diego prep coaches to highlight Shaheed’s savvy and bravery to their own players.
Instead of going out of bounds, Shaheed hit the brakes in traffic near the sideline to burn vital seconds. That’s savvy.
The pause exposed the 6-foot, 180-pound Shaheed to a hit from Titans star Jeffery Simmons, a 305pound lineman. That’s bravery.
What cannot be learned from Shaheed’s career: game-changing speed. How fast is he? That’s a bit of mystery, because he was recovering from the knee injury during the 2022 NFL Scouting Combine.
Certainly he was too fast for Mt. Carmel’s opponents, either on the football field or the track.
Kristian Fulton is the cornerback Shaheed ran past Sunday en route to the 41-yard reception. The former LSU star and second-round draftee logged an official 4.46 in the 40-yard dash at the 2020 NFL Combine.
Shaheed, whose shiftiness plays up his speed, was plenty fast for the NFL last year. He averaged 17.4 yards per catch across 24 receptions, returned a punt 42 yards and took a jet sweep 44 yards for a touchdown on his first NFL touch.
Olave’s 4.39 clocking at the 2022 combine contributed to the Saints drafting him 11th overall. In addition, his 10-yard split of 1.50 ranked in the top 15 percent of draft-eligible receivers.
Exceptional smoothness on routes added to his success, contributing to a rookie season in which the 6-foot 1⁄2-inch, 187-pounder ranked first among rookies in receiving yards per game (69.5) and 50-or-more receiving yard games (12), second among rookies in receiving yards (11.54) and tied for second in receptions (80).
Olave caught 8 of 10 targets from Carr for 112 yards. Six catches went for first downs.
Monday night at Carolina, the Saints figure to lean again on Olave and Shaheed as Alvin Kamara, their star running back, continues to serve a threegame suspension for an offseason fight.
Saints coordinator Pete Carmichael will be coming off a good game. The former Chargers assistant sprang Olave and Shaheed several times with clever designs.