The NFL's 2026 preseason opened with a final score of 33-30, as the Arizona Cardinals edged the Carolina Panthers in the Hall of Fame Game on Aug. 6, according to box score data published by ESPN. But while that score offered the first glimpse of live football after a long offseason, a far more consequential development emerged from a different training camp that same week — one that will shape a playoff contender's entire season.
New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Bryan Bresee is feared to have torn his ACL during the team's first training camp practice on Wednesday, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo, as reported by Sports Illustrated. Bresee will receive a second opinion on the knee injury, but the Saints are already operating as though they will be without their starting defensive lineman for the entirety of the 2026 season, according to NOLA.com.
"It's tough," Saints coach Kellen Moore said of the injury.
The loss is significant on multiple fronts. Bresee, the 29th overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft out of Clemson, had steadily developed into a critical piece of New Orleans' interior defensive line. He was reportedly positioned for a major contract extension next offseason before the injury struck, and now his fourth NFL season could be over before it truly begins.
Broughton, Miller and the Scramble for Reps
Bresee's absence immediately reshuffled the Saints' depth chart. Third-round rookie Vernon Broughton, a 6-foot-5, 311-pound lineman selected in 2025, lined up with the first team in Bresee's place, while second-round pick Christen Miller, taken this year, remained with the backups, according to NOLA.com.
Both players represent unknown quantities. Broughton missed all but one game of his rookie season with a hip injury, which prevented the Saints from evaluating him against NFL-caliber competition. Before that injury, Broughton had shown promise early in training camp before cooling off as the summer wore on — a pattern that led New Orleans to stick with veteran Nathan Shepherd as a starter alongside Bresee and nose tackle Davon Godchaux last season.
Shepherd is coming off a career-high 13 quarterback hits and could see an expanded role if neither Broughton nor Miller proves ready. The Saints also re-signed veteran John Ridgeway to a two-year, $5.7 million contract during free agency, giving the interior line another experienced body to lean on.
Moore said the team will use training camp and the preseason schedule to sort out who steps up. "We'll use training camp and preseason games and all these opportunities to kind of evaluate that," he said. "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."
Defensive end Chase Young expressed confidence in the group despite the uncertainty. "From top to bottom, we got horses," Young said. "We got big boys. They can run. They're physical. They're everything you want from a real, old-school interior defensive line. From Davon Godchaux to Vernon to (Ridgeway) to Shep, them boys ain't nothing to play with. That's one thing us as a defense is we're never worried about our interior D-line, because we know them boys is nasty."
A Career Interrupted at Its Peak
The injury arrives just as Bresee appeared to be turning a corner. Through his first three NFL seasons, he compiled 14 and a half sacks, including a career-high 7 and a half in 2024. His sack total dipped to 2 and a half last season, but NOLA.com reported his 30 total pressures and 8.2% pressure rate — nearly identical to his 8.6% mark in 2024 — suggested he was playing better than the raw numbers indicated.
Bresee had also addressed what was once considered the biggest weakness in his game: run defense. That improvement gave the New Orleans coaching staff enough confidence to keep him on the field even in clear rushing situations, and as a result Bresee played a personal-best 69.4% of defensive snaps last season when healthy.
At Clemson, Bresee was a five-star, No. 1 overall recruit in the 2020 class, according to 247Sports, choosing the Tigers over Alabama and Auburn. He won ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year as a freshman and finished his three-year college career with 50 tackles, 15 tackles for loss, nine sacks, a forced fumble and an interception in 26 games, per Sports Illustrated. His four sacks as a freshman tied a program record for an interior defensive lineman.
Off the field, Bresee's 2022 season at Clemson was defined by his sister Ella's battle with brain cancer, which the program honored with an all-gray "Ella Strong" game that September.
There is at least one silver lining, according to NOLA.com: the injury occurred to the knee opposite the one Bresee tore at Clemson in 2021, and the Saints had already picked up his fifth-year option in May, fully guaranteeing him $13.9 million for the 2027 season. Had New Orleans declined that option, Bresee would have been facing free agency while recovering from a major injury.
Young, who suffered a serious knee injury of his own in 2021, offered Bresee some perspective. "The bright side is ACLs now, you know you can get back," Young said. "Just attack it. We know that you're going to heal. We know that you're going to get better. And you know, you know what you got to do when you get back. That's the name of the game."
For now, the Saints must find answers up front without their most productive young interior lineman, testing whether two straight draft classes of defensive line investment are ready to carry real weight in games that count.
