USA TODAY Sports
Chris Olave may one day take over as the Saints’ No. 1 receiver. For now, that role belongs to Michael Thomas, and Thomas doesn’t feel threatened by the first-round draft choice.
Instead, Thomas has become a mentor for Olave.
The veteran receiver was one of the first players to welcome the 11th overall choice to New Orleans, FaceTiming with Olave shortly after the draft. It was during the call that Thomas invited Olave to work out with him as both trains in Southern California during the offseason.
“I couldn’t turn that down,” Olave said, via Mike Triplett of ESPN.
Olava spent more than a week working with Thomas before flying to New Orleans for the team’s rookie minicamp this weekend. The two worked out together a year ago, too, when Olave was still playing for Ohio State.
“I feel like that was exactly a year ago,” Olave said. “That was cool being out there with him, and finally being on the same team is going to be huge. I can’t wait.
“He kind of showed love to me since college, so we’d text back and forth every now and then. . . .I feel like we have the same mindset. We both want to dominate. We’re both competitors. Just when we get on the field, we turn into a different person. Just knowing him and knowing he’s on the other side of the field, that’s going to make us better and make us go hard.”
Olave also can’t wait to get to work with veteran receiver Jarvis Landry, whom the Saints signed Friday.
“I can’t wait to learn from them, those two legends,” Olave said of Thomas and Landry. “I just started playing receiver my junior year of high school. Coming here and having Mike Thomas, Jarvis Landry help me, I have a lot of room for development. I can’t wait to max that out.
“I’ve watched a lot of film on Jarvis, just his short movement quickness. I watched a lot of film on him in college, trying to take some stuff out of his game from him. And Mike is one of the best receivers in the game, so of course I watch him. But to see them in person, see how they work in person I feel like it’s going to help me a lot.”