Oscar Delp is spending his 23rd birthday the way most rookies spend their first NFL summer: on the practice field. The New Orleans Saints tight end, born August 4, 2003, turned 23 on Tuesday, right in the thick of the team’s 2026 training camp in Metairie.
The Saints marked the occasion on X, posting a graphic of Delp in practice gear with the caption “Happy Birthday, Oscar Delp.” The team account attributed the post directly to Delp’s rookie season, which began when New Orleans selected him in the third round, No. 73 overall, out of Georgia in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Happy Birthday, Oscar Delp 🎉 pic.twitter.com/XW3fXVNWP8
— New Orleans Saints (@Saints) August 4, 2026
Delp isn’t new to high-level football rooms. At Georgia, he came up in a tight end group that included future NFL first-rounders Brock Bowers and Darnell Washington, and he was part of the Bulldogs’ 2022 national championship team. He stuck around for four seasons in Athens, appearing in 55 games and catching 70 passes for 854 yards and nine touchdowns for his college career, according to Wikipedia’s career summary.
His senior year was his busiest as a receiver — a career-high 20 catches for 261 yards — even as coaches leaned on him primarily as a blocker. That two-way skill set is exactly what drew New Orleans to him in April. The Saints’ own scouting profile describes him as a sure-handed receiving threat, an agile ball-carrier after the catch, and a physical blocker who’s expected to compete for a role on both offense and special teams.
Delp isn’t walking into an empty depth chart. New Orleans enters 2026 with Juwan Johnson coming off a career year, veteran free-agent addition Noah Fant, and Delp all fighting for snaps at tight end, plus extra depth behind them. Crescent City Sports reported the group is deep enough that it can absorb the offseason departures of Foster Moreau, Taysom Hill and Jack Stoll, who combined for just 24 catches and one touchdown a year ago.
Still, analysts see a path for the rookie to matter early. Because Delp gives the offense a credible three-tight-end look, he opens up formation flexibility that Johnson and Fant alone don’t provide. One team-affiliated preview piece noted that his blocking is already ahead of schedule, and that his receiving ability may have gone underused at Georgia — suggesting there’s more in the tank than his college numbers show.
| Player | College | 2025/Career Highlight | Status Entering Camp |
|---|---|---|---|
| Juwan Johnson | Oregon | Career year in 2025 | Presumed starter |
| Noah Fant | Iowa | Veteran free-agent addition | Competing for snaps |
| Oscar Delp | Georgia | 9 career TDs, CFP champion (2022) | Rookie, 3rd-round pick |
The Saints opened camp on July 28 and are practicing through August 27, with joint sessions scheduled against the Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys later in the summer, per ESPN’s camp preview. That stretch of padded practices, plus preseason games, will decide how much of a role Delp carves out as a rookie before Week 1.
For now, the milestone is a smaller one — a 23rd birthday spent in shoulder pads instead of at home, with a franchise that’s betting his blend of blocking and receiving skill translates from Athens to the NFL.
