New Orleans Saints Hidden Gems: 3 Secret Superstars on the 2026 roster

Hey, remember when the New Orleans Saints selected Louisville quarterback Tyler Shough with the 40th overall pick in the 2025 draft, and a lot of alleged draft experts thought that they were nuts?

Yeah, I’m one of the geniuses who’s now taking a second look between bites of crow.

Not that Shough was the second coming of Drew Brees or anything — at least, not yet — but the Saints were 2-10 at one point in the season, and Shough getting the hang of head coach Kellen Moore’s passing game was a major part of the turnaround that led to a 6-11 final record, and a lot of encouragement about the future at a position that has been (to put it kindly) undefined since Brees’ retirement after the 2020 season.

Of course, the challenge is different for Shough now — he’s not anyone’s underdog anymore. He’s the starter, and every upcoming Saints opponent has had all offseason to pick his tape apart.

“I think what we’re really excited about, and what Tyler’s certainly really excited about, is just the opportunity to really take control of this thing through the philosophy and the leadership,” Moore told Rich Eisen in April regarding Shough’s further development. ”Rallying the group together, all the different throwing sessions that they’re a part of, and all the different opportunities they have to spend together. Then, we get to double down on our system. Last year, [we] introduced the system. [Now], we build it, we make adjustments from a roster standpoint, we get to make adjustments from a scheme standpoint, and we really tailor this thing what ultimately we want to do collectively.

“Tyler finished the season off really well last year; we’re really excited about that, and just a great offseason start so far.”

Of course, it will take more than an interesting young quarterback for the Saints to make the playoffs for the first time since Brees’ final season of 2020. Everybody on the roster — both old and new — will have to bring their level best, and that’s as true for the underrated guys on the roster as it is for the recognized stars.

To that end, I’ve identified three Hidden Gems for the 2026 Saints — one underrated veteran, one underrated free-agent signing, and one underrated draft pick.

Underrated veteran: Safety Jonas Sanker

When the Saints selected Virginia’s Jonas Sanker with the 93rd overall pick in the third round of the 2025 draft, they didn’t expect him to start right away — the plan was for Justin Reid and Julian Blackmon to patrol the defensive backfield as the main safeties. But when Blackmon suffered a season-ending torn labrum in Week 1, the rookie was thrown into the proverbial fire, and he handled it like a champ.

“His story follows my story,” Reid said of Sanker. “My rookie year, I started the second game of the season for the same reason — that there was an injury that came up in the first game and I started the second game — so I already talked to Jonas a little bit about that.

(For the 2018 Houston Texans, Reid became a starting safety when Kareem Jackson was moved back to cornerback following an injury to cornerback Aaron Colvin).

“And [Sanker will be] ready for the moment. He shined in preseason, he was flying around all over the ball, and we just need that same player to play on Sunday. And his best will be good enough for us.”

Sanker’s best was indeed good enough. In 976 overall snaps and 575 coverage snaps, the 6’0⅜, 206-pound Sanker allowed 14 catches on 24 targets for 179 yards, 47 yards after the catch, one touchdown, two interceptions, four pass breakups, and an opponent passer rating of 60.9. He also had 57 solo tackles, 14 stops, three tackles for loss, and one quarterback hurry on two pass-rushing snaps.

The Saints hope that Blackmon’s injury history doesn’t rear its ugly head once again, because a trio of Reid, Blackmon, and Sanker would allow defensive coordinator Brandon Staley to do all kinds of funky stuff with his coverages. But at the very least, we now know what Sanker’s capable of if he needs to become That Guy once again.

Underrated free agent: LB Kaden Elliss

Kaden Elliss’ NFL career did not get off to the strongest possible start. A 2019 seventh-round pick of the Saints in 2019 out of Idaho, Elliss missed most of his first season with a knee injury, and totaled just 11 defensive snaps in 2020. It wasn’t until 2022 when the breakout happened, and Elliss began to show his true value as a two-level defender (linebacker and edge) with eight sacks and 20 pressures, all the while blowing up run fits and being at least credible in coverage.

That prompted the Atlanta Falcons to give Elliss a three-year, $21.5 million contract with $10.16 million guaranteed. With at least 700 snaps at linebacker and at least 200 snaps on the defensive line over each of the next three seasons, Elliss defined the Falcons’ defense as much as anybody else.

This offseason, the Saints made sure Elliss wasn’t getting away again, signing him to a three-year, $33 million contract with $23 million guaranteed. It’s expected that he’ll be a major part of Brandon Staley’s defense, and Elliss is excited for the possibilities.

“We’re going,” Elliss said in June. “It’s really awesome to spend time with [linebackers coach] Peter Sirmon and Brandon Staley and all these guys, to hear how they skin the cat.

“There’s a lot of ways to do it, and the way they do it is a lot of the same things I’ve done, and it’s a lot of different things that I haven’t done before. It’s really cool to learn from them. They’re special minds and Brandon’s got a really special defense here. Everybody is bought in, everybody is dialed, and I’m excited to play my part in it.

“There’s some truly different things that I haven’t done before and different aspects of the game, different coverages and whatnot. It’s really cool to learn how they do it, and we’ll be good to go.”

Elliss will need to be up to speed quickly — he was the green-dot guy with the Falcons, and it’s likely that he’ll serve the same role for Staley. What he allows Staley to do with all Staley’s light fronts and multiple coverages is to have that reliable man in the middle who can disrupt and demolish in multiple roles, so when it all comes together, Elliss will once again help to define the defense he’s playing in.

Underrated draft pick: TE Oscar Delp

In 2017. the San Francisco 49ers selected an under-the-radar tight end from Iowa in the fifth round, and it was a stretch to say that anybody in the NFL expected a ton of production from him, as the guy had just 43 catches for 624 yards and 10 touchdowns over three collegiate seasons. But when George Kittle got in Kyle Shanahan’s offense, he became one of the NFL’s true force multipliers at his position. What happened in college didn’t automatically align with Kittle’s NFL future.

We’re bringing up George Kittle here because of the tape Oscar Delp put up in the 2025 season. Yes, the Saints’ third-round pick from Georgia caught just 20 passes on 28 targets last season for 261 yards and a touchdown. But when you watch the guy’s tape, you see everything you want in a modern receiving tight end.

It’s up to Moore and his staff to unleash the Kraken here.

“I think he’s got some really good versatility,” Moore said of Delp post-draft. “I think the way they played him, obviously, he played a little bit more of an off-the-ball tight end in a wing alignment a lot of times. He’ll be able to play potentially in the backfield on the line of scrimmage, and off the ball. I think what we’re getting is a really smart player.

“I think he’ll be able to handle some volume. And I think he’ll allow us to play the chess piece game when you have Juwan, and you have Noah, and you have these other tight ends that you want to put in certain positions. He’ll be able to kind of counteract with those guys.

”Our coaching staff really had a really good vision for how this guy could play with those other tight ends. And again, the value of playing in multiple tight end [formations] is [clear]. You can see the teams that made runs this year. A lot of them are playing in 12 and 13 personnel. And we think there’s the pass game juice that these guys provide because of what they have in the pass game. I think it’s going to be a benefit.

“These guys aren’t just big. They’re not just going to block. When we get in 13 personnel, it’s kind of a ding, ding.”

Interestingly enough, it wasn’t “ding, ding” for Shough last season — with two tight ends on the field, he completed 32 of 58 passes for 317 yards, no touchdowns, two interceptions, and a passer rating of 56.5, and with three tight ends, he completed 11 of 16 passes for 116 yards, no touchdowns, no interceptions, and a passer rating of 89.6 — but perhaps Delp can be the unlock code along with the already established Juwan Johnson and Noah Fant.