Updated April 10, 2026, 5:27 p.m. CT

Bryan Bresee received a big vote of confidence from the New Orleans Saints when the team exercised his fifth-year option this week, putting the defensive tackle under contract through 2027. Bresee receives more security with an extra year added to his contract, and the Saints get some insurance about their long-term outlook at the position. It’s a good deal for the former Clemson Tigers first-round draft pick.

In terms of salary cap cost, nothing changes this season. Bresee still has a 2026 salary cap hit of $3.9 million. But in 2027, he’ll be guaranteed more than $13.9 million. Even though he qualifies for only the basic level of compensation (you can read more about the different tiers here), Bresee’s fifth-year salary will exceed what he earned the first four years put together (a little under $12.3 million). That’s the rookie wage scale in effect. If he were on the books for $13.9 million this year, Bresee would take up 4.6% of the Saints’ salary cap. With the cap projected to hit $327 million next season, he’ll take up about 4.3%.

But that means higher expectations are in place, too. We know he can rush the quarterback, but now he needs to impact the run, too. Bresee became a three-down player in 2025 with a career-high 294 snaps in run defense (44.1% of his total), compared to just 228 snaps in 2024 (32.2%) and 148 of them in 2023 (27.5%). He played the second-most snaps against the run among the team’s defensive tackles behind Nathan Shepherd (303), with veteran nose tackle Davon Godchaux (278) not far behind.

The Saints improved to rank sixth-best in yards allowed per carry (4.0) after ranking bottom-10 in each of his first two seasons. But teams still tried to run on them. New Orleans faced the third-most rushing attempts (517) in the league, ranking 14th in total rushing yards allowed (2,050). Just five teams gave up more than 2,000 rushing yards and still made the playoffs. If he’s going to keep seeing more action against the run, Bresee has to take more responsibility in slowing down opposing offenses.

With a big pay raise on the horizon, Bresee needs to do more to discourage teams from running the ball and controlling the pace of play. He’s only created eight tackles for loss on running plays in his career, compared to 14.5 sacks in the same span of time. We need to see more of that disruptive playmaking in the opposing backfield. To Bresee’s credit, five of those eight tackles for loss came last year. He’s already taken a couple of big steps in the right direction. Hopefully he can use that momentum to take a leap and become the player the Saints believe he can be.

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