Saints Rookie WR Brock Rechsteiner Suspended for First 6 Games of 2026 Season
The New Orleans Saints lost a body off their receiver depth chart Thursday, and it happened before he ever played a regular-season snap. The NFL announced on its personnel wire that rookie wide receiver Brock Rechsteiner will sit out the first six games of the 2026 season, a suspension confirmed by ESPN.
The league’s transaction notice didn’t spell out why. But the Saints’ own team website did. In a statement posted to neworleanssaints.com, the team said Rechsteiner violated the NFL-NFLPA performance-enhancing substances policy. That’s a six-game penalty under the league’s drug policy, applied specifically when a player is found to have manipulated or interfered with a test rather than simply testing positive for a banned substance.
Rechsteiner will not disappear from the building right away. He’s still eligible to practice through the rest of training camp and play in every preseason game. The suspension only kicks in once the Saints trim their roster to 53 players on Aug. 30 — the standard cutdown date across the league.
An Undrafted Rookie Already Facing Long Odds
Rechsteiner arrived in New Orleans the hard way. He signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent after a tryout invite to the team’s rookie minicamp in May, and according to ClutchPoints, he impressed enough during those workouts to earn a contract on the spot.
Even before Thursday’s news, he was a long shot to make the 53-man roster. New Orleans’ receiver room is deep, and undrafted rookies routinely get squeezed out in late August regardless of how camp goes. Now he’ll have to make a roster, sit six weeks, and hope the team still wants him around when he’s eligible to play in mid-October.
There’s a version of this where Rechsteiner sticks around anyway. The Saints can keep him on the 90-man roster through the rest of camp, or stash him on the practice squad once cuts happen, letting him rejoin the 53-man group later in the year.
Saints’ Receiver Room Already Thin
The timing stings a little more given where New Orleans stands at the position. The Saints have already been dealing with attrition — defensive lineman Bryan Bresee is out for the season with a knee injury, and Ja’Lynn Polk caught the team off guard by announcing his retirement. Neither directly involves Rechsteiner’s spot on the depth chart, but it underscores how thin the margins are getting heading into final cuts.
On the field, Rechsteiner gave the Saints something to work with. He caught 36 passes for 383 yards and five touchdowns in his final season at Jacksonville State before going unselected in the 2026 NFL Draft.
| Category | 2025 Season (Jacksonville State) |
|---|---|
| Receptions | 36 |
| Receiving Yards | 383 |
| Touchdowns | 5 |
| Draft Status | Undrafted (2026) |
Wrestling Runs in the Family
Football isn’t the only ring Rechsteiner has ties to. He’s the son of WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner, and his uncle Rick Steiner is also enshrined in the WWE Hall of Fame — the two made up the legendary tag team the Steiner Brothers. His cousin, Bronson Rechsteiner, briefly signed with the Baltimore Ravens as an undrafted free agent before pivoting to a wrestling career of his own under the ring name Bron Breakker, according to ClutchPoints.
Rechsteiner has talked openly about following that same path eventually. He said in May that he plans to pursue professional wrestling once his football career winds down — a background that’s shadowed him since he first walked into rookie minicamp as a tryout body nobody outside the building expected to make the roster.
For now, the more immediate question is simpler: will there be a roster spot waiting for him when his suspension ends.
