Nobody likes a training camp injury right before peak fantasy draft season. If you haven’t drafted your fantasy team yet, it’s time to rethink your Jordyn Tyson strategy. The talented Saints rookie is going to be out for a while.
Let’s break down the injury news, adjust our draft plans, and look at viable alternatives on the New Orleans roster.
The good news for the Saints and potential Tyson drafters: if he misses the two months alone and makes a clean recovery, he could miss as few as five games, potentially returning for an October 18th matchup with the Giants. 12 of 17 games played isn’t all that bad, and you can use him as a draft-and-stash option.
The bad news: lower body injuries are nothing new for Tyson. It was arguably his biggest pre-draft concern and made him a huge risk for the Saints with the eighth overall pick. In 2022, while at the University of Colorado, Tyson tore his ACL, MCL, and PCL. It cost him the final three games of his season and led to him playing only three games in 2023 after transferring to Arizona State University. 2024 was healthy and productive, but his 2025 year was a slog; he had ankle issues during preseason, then strained his hamstring in October, missing three games. That injury held him out of the final games as he prepared for the draft. Now, a different hamstring injury will push back his NFL debut.
It’s never a good sign when the exact thing that worried NFL talent evaluators happens right before the season. For that reason, I’m out on Tyson in redraft leagues. He’s currently priced as a WR3/4 in PPR leagues, placing him as a mid-round value. Tyson does have some appeal as an IR stash, but I doubt you’ll get him at a price that makes it worth it; using a mid-round pick on a guy who will at minimum miss close to half the fantasy regular season isn’t a winning formula.
Instead, I’m looking at the outlooks of the other Saints wide receivers. Chris Olave, already on the WR1 radar, gets a slight boost to his target-share outlook. Starting tight end Juwan Johnson gets a boost as well. But the real winner here is Devaughn Vele. The 28-year-old quietly surged down the stretch with Tyler Shough under center; over his last four starts of the year, Vele averaged 6.5 targets, 4.8 receptions, and 59.8 yards per game, along with a touchdown. He was a solid FLEX option in PPR formats. Vele is now quietly a solid late-round stab; he will be the third target in the pecking order at worst, and with a solid game script on his side with the Saints expected to struggle.
In short: stay far away from Tyson in redraft leagues, and try to snag Devaughn Vele in the late rounds.
