The New Orleans Saints lost cornerback Isaac Yiadom to the San Francisco 49ers this offseason. Of all their departures, Yiadom was easily the most productive in 2023.
Yiadom filled in for Marshon Lattimore due to injury and made the most of his opportunity. When you lose your lead cornerback, your pass defense could sink significantly. This wasn’t the case for the Saints.
Paulson Adebo receives a lot of credit for the performance staying afloat. This is because he became the number one corner, but the replacement corner who is attacked. When teams went at Yiadom, they completed less than half of their attempts and ended with an 83.9 passer rating. That would be good for 26th in the NFL, tied with Raiders rookie Aidan O’Connell. Yiadom was something of a neutralizer.
Like Zack Baun, Yiadom left for a chance at a bigger role in San Francisco. Despite performing well, the Saints were returning Adebo and Lattimore. Lattimore has suffered lasting injuries in the last two seasons, but banking on that opportunity to arise again doesn’t make much sense from Yiadom’s perspective.
Yiadom struck while the iron was hot and will try his hand at going to a team that needs cornerbacks more than New Orleans does.
If you’re following the biggest addition series as well as this departures, you’d notice a slight overlap in the positions featured on each list. The loss of Baun’s pass rush production is mirrored by the addition of Chase Young. Yiadom’s departure was met by New Orleans drafting Kool-Aid McKinstry in the second round.
This is a sign of smart roster development by the Saints. The players they’ve lost haven’t been overly detrimental, even without the new acquisitions. Still, the Saints replaced their losses with high-ceiling additions.
