New Orleans Saints lose starting defensive tackle Bryan Bresee for the season
Bryan Bresee will undergo season-ending surgery to repair a torn ACL, New Orleans Saints coach Kellen Moore confirmed to reporters on Sunday. The defensive tackle was hurt on a non-contact play during the first training camp practice of the year on Wednesday in Metairie, working with the first unit in 11-on-11 drills.
Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo reported the fear of a torn ACL within hours of the practice, and further testing confirmed it. Moore said that night on WWL Radio that nobody had run into Bresee and nobody had fallen on him, and that the injury did not look good.
“First day. It was like a freak accident. Hardly wasn’t even any contact. Just really was a pass rush move and he felt his knee buckle,” Saints nose tackle Davon Godchaux said.
Bresee tore his left ACL at the start of the 2021 season at Clemson, and this injury came to the other leg. The Saints drafted him 29th overall in 2023 and picked up his fifth-year option in May, a fully guaranteed $13.9 million that leaves him two years of contract security while he rehabilitates.
The guaranteed money covers one side of this and does nothing for the other, because Bresee had 7.5 sacks in 2024 and was walking into the season that would have shaped his next contract. That conversation now gets pushed back a full year, and he will be making his case on a surgically repaired knee when he is fit.
Saints HC Kellen Moore confirmed to reporters that DT Bryan Bresee, who injured his knee last week, will undergo season-ending surgery on his torn ACL. pic.twitter.com/702wg8maps
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 2, 2026
Why Vernon Broughton is suddenly the name to watch
Last season, Bresee started all 15 games he played and finished with 37 tackles, 2.5 sacks, five tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits, and a forced fumble. The sack total dropped sharply from the year before, though his job changed when New Orleans moved to Brandon Staley’s front and used him more as a 3-4 defensive end than a traditional interior tackle. He has 14.5 sacks and 31 quarterback hits in 49 career games with 26 starts.
Vernon Broughton has taken the first-team reps in his place. The 2025 third-round pick is 6-foot-5 and 311 pounds, and he played one game as a rookie before a hip injury ended his season, which leaves New Orleans without much evidence of what he can do against NFL offenses.
Christen Miller, a second-round pick this year, has stayed with the second unit so far. Davon Godchaux, Khristian Boyd, Nathan Shepherd and John Ridgeway III round out the group.
“We’ll use training camp and preseason games and all these opportunities to kind of evaluate that. And we’ll have a good opportunity there. We’ve got some talented guys in that room, some veterans, some young guys that will get plenty of reps to get ready to go,” Moore said.
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