The New Orleans Saints have had bad injury luck throughout training camp, and have already lost key pieces to short-term injuries and even long-term, season-ending injuries. And despite the injuries that have piled up before the season can even start, the Saints got more bad news on Monday.
Rookie wide receiver Jordyn Tyson is expected to miss roughly two months with a right hamstring injury suffered during a joint practice with the Jacksonville Jaguars. It was a sequence in which Tyson caught a pass, landed awkwardly, and left practice with trainers before being ruled out for the remainder of that practice session.
This is brutal timing for New Orleans. Their regular season opener is on Sept. 13, and with this two-month window that’s being targeted, Tyson could be out until around Week 6.
And to be clear, Tyson’s not a developmental piece. This is a guy that has the talent to produce in Year 1 and somebody the Saints were going to heavily rely on in this offense. And so this isn’t just a step back for a player that the Saints wanted to get reps for. This is a step back in terms of the team’s ability to be competitive.
Tyson and Chris Olave were slated to be one of the best wide receiver duos in the entire league from Week 1. The No. 8 overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft had put together a strong camp before the injury. He’d been getting strong reviews from coaches and had been really impressive in workouts and in drills.
The good news is Kellen Moore has indicated this particular issue is different from the hamstring problems that Tyson dealt with at Arizona State. He missed three games last season at the college level because of a hamstring injury, but still put together an incredible season after that.
But even though this is not a re-aggravation of the same issue, it’s still concerning and a frustrating step back.
This isn’t the first time he’s been injured, either. He also had a major knee injury earlier in his college career and missed the final two games of the 2024 season with a broken collarbone.
And so while New Orleans knew this before drafting him, this is not the start that the Saints were hoping for. Now his NFL debut and his ability to contribute to this team will be put on pause until later in the season.