New Orleans

Saints

Per Schultz, Tolzien was considered a top candidate for the Steelers’ OC job under new head coach Mike McCarthy. Instead, he will stay with the Saints, helping to mentor Tyler Shough in his second season. While an OC gig would certainly hasten Tolzien’s rise toward a head coaching job, he has a great setup in New Orleans at the moment. Shough looks like a surprising hit at quarterback and Kellen Moore is a great coach to learn the ropes of calling an NFL offense under. If things go well for the Saints in 2026, Tolzien should get to choose his spot as an OC next year.

The Saints will be the “home” team against an opponent to be named later, and the game will be played in Paris at the Stade de France stadium. The announcement of the 2026 France game brings the league’s international game totals to eight for the upcoming season, with three of those games set to be played in London/U.K.

Tolzien joined the Saints for the 2025 season, but spent the previous five seasons with the Cowboys as a coaching assistant (2020 to 2022) and later as their QBs coach (2023 to 2024). His time with the Cowboys overlaps with Mike McCarthy’s tenure with the team, and he also spent three seasons with McCarthy while playing for the Packers. From a relationship standpoint, there’s a lot that makes sense about McCarthy’s interest in Tolzien, but this would be his first role as an offensive coordinator should he land the job, which could prove challenging given the current state of the Steelers’ roster.

ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler notes that Tolzien was on the Packers’ roster, as a quarterback, under current Steelers head coach Mike McCarthy. McCarthy also hired Tolzien as an offensive assistant with the Cowboys in 2020 and promoted him to quarterbacks coach in 2023, where he served for two seasons.

Terms weren’t announced by the team. Blackmon was set to start for the Saints last year before he suffered a season-ending labrum tear in the team’s opening game. Assuming rehab goes fine, he should be in line to start next to Justin Reid at safety next season.

Cooks appeared in 11 games for the Jaguars during the 2023 and 2024 season, catching a combined 3-of-4 targets for 38 yards. He’ll look to break out in camp and preseason after change of scenery.

A fourth-year UDFA, Austin was a 2022 Combine workout warrior who entered 2025 with 11 career catches. He doubled that this year, but with just 13 total grabs, eight of which came the past two weeks as the Saints dealt with injury issues. Two months shy of his 26th birthday, there is no guarantee Austin is back on next summer’s 53-man roster.

Playing out the string for the Saints’ injury-ruined backfield, Estime reached 100 yards from scrimmage for the first time in his career after posting 98 the week before. Not a bad end to the year for a player who spent the first half of the season on practice squads. Still only 22 years old, Estime is buying himself time to get established in the NFL, but he still probably mostly profiles as a special teamer if he’s going to make a 53-man roster out of camp. Considering the Saints’ issues at running back, it could very well be in New Orleans.

The 61 yards extended what was already a career-high yardage total to 889 for the sixth-year pro. Johnson was a legitimate No. 2 weapon behind Chris Olave, putting up strong numbers with both Spencer Rattler and Tyler Shough. He finishes comfortably inside the top 12 in tight end PPR points per game, and could make a genuine run at 1,000 yards in 2026 if Shough plays like he did down the stretch. Signed to a wonky contract that includes $9.08 million guaranteed for next season, Johnson is a safe TE1 projection in fantasy.

In what was probably his final game for the Saints and perhaps even as an NFL player, Hill surprisingly notched zero carries. All too surprisingly, he exited banged up, something that has been a theme during a rugged career that has frequently called on him to slam into opposing linebackers and DBs. Going on 36 years old, Hill was overpaid for much of his Saints tenure but probably under-appreciated by fans who judge things on bottom-line fantasy production. If a retirement announcement isn’t forthcoming, Hill’s goal would be to land guaranteed money on the open market, which is no sure thing considering his age, injury history, and lack of a true position.