Stan Son breaks down the projected target share by position for the New Orleans Saints ahead of the 2025 fantasy football season.

The 2024 New Orleans Saints finished the season with 551 pass attempts, the 17th-most in the league. After a 5-12 finish, ownership decided to clean house, replacing head coach Dennis Allen with Kellen Moore, offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak for Doug Nussmeier and defensive coordinator Joe Woods with Brandon Staley.

The quarterback depth chart consists of Tyler Shough, Spencer Rattler and Jake Haener. That’s pretty much all you need to know.

Saints target share overview

Kellen Moore is a great offensive mind. He led three Cowboys offenses to top-10 finishes in points while the Philadelphia Eagles were seventh in points and eighth in yards while winning the Super Bowl last season.

He is being tasked with turning water into wine this season, though.

The offensive line should be improved, as PFF ranks the unit 11th heading into the season. Alvin Kamara is still one of the better running backs in the league and there is talent at the wide receiver position in Chris Olave, Brandin Cooks and Rashid Shaheed. Olave has dealt with injuries, though.

But Tyler Shough is slated to be under center. Sure, he’s mature and experienced at 25 years old, has good size at 6′ 5″, 219 pounds and the Saints obviously believe in him because they spent the 40th overall pick in the 2025 NFL draft on him, but Shough is still a rookie.

Dak Prescott and Russell Wilson are two recent quarterbacks drafted outside the first round that had success in their rookie seasons, so I’m not completely dismissing that Shough can be productive. It’s just that the probabilities aren’t high and, even if Shough is more than competent, he likely won’t be flinging it all over the field, as the run game and defense will likely be factors in that scenario.

Last season’s defense was middling across the board, but Brandon Staley is an excellent defensive mind, guiding the 2020 Los Angeles Rams to the top of the rankings in both points and yards. He will have an impact for sure, but even then, the expectations should be somewhat muted as it will take time to fully implement his system with all the necessary pieces.

Now, let’s take a look at how the targets should be distributed in New Orleans this season.

Wide receivers

No wide receiver received more than 44 targets last season. Chris Olave led the group with 44 targets and a 19% target share. He only played eight games.

Rashid Shaheed finished with 41 targets and a 24.6% target share. He had an aDOT of 17.6 yards, and Shough didn’t have any issues throwing deep in college.

Marquez Valdes-Scantling had 35 targets then a hodgepodge of Dante Pettis, Cedrick Wilson Jr., Mason Tipton and Kevin Austin Jr. all finished in the 20s.

Valdes-Scantling is now in Seattle and will be replaced by Brandin Cooks, who was in Dallas the last two seasons, garnering a 19.9% target share.

There’s an obvious unknown as to how Shough will operate, but my initial thought is that Shaheed’s target share comes down closer to the 20% range while Olave sees an uptick of a few percentage points. Olave is still the most talented receiver at the position on the roster and is an excellent route runner. He should gel with Shough and get peppered with targets. The only thing is health.

Tight ends

Juwan Johnson received 66 targets last season with a 12.9% target share. Foster Moreau had 43 targets and an 8.4% target share while Taysom Hill had 31 targets in eight games. Both Hill and Moreau are on the PUP list with knee injuries.

Johnson has been in the NFL for five seasons after going undrafted in 2020, never receiving more than 66 targets in any season. There have been injuries and depth charts haven’t been kind to him, but the allure has always been there. Johnson is 6′ 4″, 230 pounds and runs a 4.58 40-yard dash.

Moore’s offenses have been tight-end friendly in the past, so Johnson could see an increase in target share until Moreau and Hill are healthy.

Running backs

Alvin Kamara garnered 89 targets in 14 games last season. The target share was a whopping 21.5%. During his first four seasons in the NFL, Kamara received at least 100 targets in three of those campaigns. In the other, he had 97 targets. Since then, the targets have decreased, but he’s still been heavily involved. Two seasons ago, Kamara garnered 86 targets.

A 20%+ target share should be in the works for Kamara once again this season. No one else on the depth chart should be a factor when Kamara is healthy, and he should be one of the leaders on the entire team.