New Orleans SaintsOur read
Written Oct 17, from his facts through last season
Audric Estime has sat out weeks 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 of 2026 without playing a snap, and the strange part is there is no injury designation since before week 3 of 2026. Healthy and benched. In 2025 the same thing happened in slow motion: he was a healthy scratch deep into last season and only saw his first snap of 2025 with the regular season nearly over, none of those months missed to injury. New Orleans just kept him in street clothes.
When he did get on the field, he played well. 9.6 points a game over five weeks, above the position median in 4 of them, and his yards per touch climbed from 4.2 in 2024 to 5.2 in 2025. The staff still never trusted him where it counts, giving him scoring-range work on only 10.2% of his own touches, close to the back of qualifying backs. Now the depth chart has him fourth at running back behind Travis Etienne, Alvin Kamara and Kendre Miller, with Ty Chandler behind him. That is not a rotation he cracks by playing well in practice.
We had him at 46 points for 2026, about 4.2 a game across the 11 games we expected, and that modest outlook already assumed a part-time role. Five of those games are gone, his bye in week 8 of 2026 is next, and even if a back ahead of him went down, the fourth spot on this roster is not where points come from. If he is holding a spot on your bench, spend it on a running back who actually dresses. If he is sitting in your free agent pool, leave him there.