Devaughn Vele to join Saints in 2025 season

The New Orleans Saints person yet added tallness to their wide receiver roster by bringing successful erstwhile Denver Broncos choky extremity Devaughn Vele. Vele was the seventh prime successful the seventh circular of the 2024 NFL Draft by Denver, and the Saints gave him the 4th prime successful the 4th circular successful 2026 and the seventh prime successful the seventh circular successful 2027.

The 6-foot-5, 210-pound Vele, 27, had a coagulated rookie play successful Denver. Caught 41 of 56 passes, 9 intercepted and 4 missed, for 475 yards and 3 touchdowns. Pro Football Focus assigned him a people of 71.4, which ranked him 10th among rookie wide receivers.

According to Luke Johnson of The Times-Picayune, the Broncos' awesome callers had a 74.5% occurrence complaint erstwhile targeting Vele past season. On 3rd down, 11 of his 12 catches extended the offense, and among the 89 wide receivers with astatine slightest 50 targeted passes, lone 3 had a higher completion rate; Amon-Ra St. Brown of the Detroit Lions, Tee Higgins of the Cincinnati Bengals and Chris Godwin of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. 

Vele was besides 4th successful EPA (expected points added) per people among receivers with astatine slightest 40 passes.

Reactions

Some reacted negatively to the trade, arsenic the Saints gave up aboriginal picks for a subordinate who volition crook 28 successful December and missed immoderate clip this summertime with a genu injury. Still, Vele was a productive rookie, and New Orleans was successful hopeless request of tallness astatine wide receiver; it was 1 of the fewer teams without a wide receiver implicit 6 feet 2 inches (about 188 cm) isolated from the Minnesota Vikings. The Saints weren't the lone squad tracking Vele, arsenic different teams reportedly contacted Denver arsenic well.

If helium tin repetition his rookie play numbers, it would importantly bolster New Orleans' discourtesy successful 2025 and instrumentality unit disconnected Chris Olave and Rashid Shaheed. 

It is besides worthy mentioning the compensatory 4th prime that the Saints expect successful adjacent year's draught owed to the departure of Paulson Adebo to the New York Giants. With that successful mind, the compensation seems fair, and the fans are eagerly waiting to spot what Vele tin bring this season.