'Ninja with the smoke bombs' and 'Harry Potter': Nicknames help bond Saints WRs

METAIRIE, La. -- Anyone who has spent immoderate clip with the New Orleans Saints wide receivers this offseason mightiness announcement thing astir the group: Nobody goes by their fixed names.

Saints wide receivers manager Keith "Dub" Williams, 1 of the fewer unit holdovers from past season, has made heavy connections with this group. So it was casual for him to commencement handing retired caller names.

Even Brandin Cooks, who signed with the Saints aft stops with the New England Patriots, Los Angeles Rams, Houston Texans and Dallas Cowboys, has a past with Williams dating backmost to erstwhile Cooks was a teenager. Williams simply calls Cooks "209," the country codification for their shared hometown of Stockton, California.

Williams said Mason Tipton is "Attorney Tipton," due to the fact that he's "super smart" and played for Yale. Veteran Cedrick Wilson Jr. is "The Professor." Dante Pettis is "Harry Potter" due to the fact that helium "runs routes similar a wizard."

Rashid Shaheed is simply "Sheed," which is besides his grip connected his societal media accounts.

"He's similar Prince," Williams said, referring to the precocious instrumentalist who simply went by 1 name.

Williams, who turned down different occupation opportunities to enactment successful New Orleans, said the group's enslaved is 1 of the things that excites him astir this season. He noticed it successful minicamp aft the remainder of the wide receiver radical defended rookie Moochie Dixon. When Williams started to get connected Dixon astir a dropped catch, the remainder of the receivers told him to springiness him a break.

"They emotion each other," Williams said. "There's nary envy, there's nary ego. The egos are checked successful astatine the door. ... It's a large group. I truly bask driving into work. I cognize what I'm going to get each time from each 1 collectively and truthful they conscionable work."

Yet Williams knows the camaraderie volition lone spell truthful far. The Saints finished the 2024 play ranked No. 24 successful the league with 3,730 receiving yards. It was a play that was hard for a ample information of the radical due to the fact that of injuries, and however the receivers volition bounce backmost is 1 of large the questions facing the group.

But Cooks, who dealt with a genu corruption past play that constricted him to 10 games and vocation lows of 26 catches for 29 yards, said everyone is starting "0-0" this offseason.

"It don't substance what you did the erstwhile year," Cooks said. "It's a caller slate for america and you tin telephone america the underdog oregon immoderate the lawsuit whitethorn be, but we putting successful our enactment and we'll fto our actions speech travel Sundays during the season."

Shaheed, the team's champion footwear returner and heavy threat, started past play with 3 touchdowns but went connected injured reserve aft tearing his meniscus successful Week 6. While those injuries mightiness person opened the doorway for Bub Means successful his rookie season, an ankle sprain besides ended his twelvemonth aboriginal successful Week 8.

Wide receiver Chris Olave played successful 8 games after sustaining 2 concussions and consulted specialists astatine the extremity of the season.

"It was tough," Olave said "I ain't ne'er truly sat retired that agelong oregon been capable to not play football, truthful that was truly my archetypal large wounded and sitting retired 8 oregon 9 games was pugnacious for me. Just not being capable to spell to signifier oregon spell to meetings with my guys was the worst part, but ... I consciousness similar I'm ready. I was grooming and lifting and everything successful December, truthful I consciousness similar I'm good."

New adjunct wide receivers manager Kyle Valero, who was with first-year manager Kellen Moore connected the Philadelphia Eagles unit past season, was the 1 who came up with a nickname for Olave: "The ninja with the fume bombs."

According to Valero and Williams, it's due to the fact that 1 2nd Olave is determination and the adjacent he's gone.

"You're adjacent to him and past helium throws a fume weaponry and it clears and he's 5 steps up of you," Williams said. "Nothing successful his assemblage connection changed, it's conscionable the fume weaponry cleared. ... You don't cognize what happened."

Williams said immoderate players, similar Shaheed, simply look accelerated owed to their movements. Olave glides crossed the tract instead, making defenders deliberation he's moving slower than helium really is.

"He's specified a glider successful presumption of his question signifier that usually doesn't equate to a very, precise accelerated player, which helium besides is," Williams said. "And truthful he's decidedly a ninja with immoderate fume bombs."

The Saints person ample wage headdress abstraction to motion different seasoned receiver if needed, but Williams said he's blessed with the constitution of the radical close now.

"I'm very, precise satisfied, excited astir the guys we have," Williams said. "... They're fast, they're quick, they tin drawback and they're versatile. They tin tally each route. They're not conscionable slots successful and not conscionable outside."

When asked astir the wide constitution of the group, Williams said helium didn't consciousness similar they were outmuscled erstwhile blocking antiaircraft backs past season. The 3 receivers assumed to beryllium the apical targets successful 2025 -- Cooks, Olave and Shaheed -- are 6-foot oregon shorter. He utilized a hoops analogy erstwhile discussing the pros and cons of height, saying a accelerated wide receiver inactive has an vantage implicit a taller DB.

"It's not hoops wherever if [Kyrie Irving] played LeBron [James] 1-on-1, you mightiness beryllium acrophobic for Kyrie due to the fact that he's got to defender LeBron. But shot ... the wideout doesn't person to defender the guy. The 6-2 feline has to support up with the accelerated guy, and truthful if you're skillful and talented and tin catch, past you're going to beryllium open."

Cooks said helium knows the nationalist sentiment astir the deficiency of tallness successful the room, but it comes down to 1 thing: "Can you interruption your feline successful beforehand of you?"

"I deliberation a batch of america tin bash that, truthful there's a batch of narrative: There's not a tall, there's not a large guy, but we each tin abstracted and truthful it doesn't substance the similarities that we got," Cooks said. "We tin each play successful immoderate space."