Sean Payton recognizes Saints need for another cornerback

Sean Payton watched his Hall of Fame quarterback, Drew Brees, retire this offseason, and with former No. 1 overall pick Jameis Winston set to take over, Payton knows the Saints defense is going to need some improvement instead of focusing on Brees’ replacement.

More specifically, the Saints need to add a top-tier cornerback either in free agency or with their first-round pick in the coming draft.

The New Orleans Saints gutted their roster this offseason, and the need for another cornerback is so strong even head coach Sean Payton recognized it.

As noted, the Saints gutted their roster.

They were able to keep several top-tier players. Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Demario Davis, their safety duo, their entire offensive line, and numerous others are returning to the Big Easy and will keep New Orleans in playoff contention.

However, the team was forced to release Janoris Jenkins, a cornerback they added late in 2019. Jenkins played an important role after filling in for the injured Eli Apple. He’ll be missed as he signed with the Tennessee Titans.

The Saints will need to replace him though, and with Patrick Robinson and PJ Williams behind Marshon Lattimore, the team clearly need one more player. Here’s how Payton described the need for a cornerback.

“Corner is an area that we have to address here between now and the start of the season, and I think we’ll be able to find that. But we lost some good players that we knew we might have to, to get our numbers below (the salary cap). I think that’s part of operating in the salary cap era,” Payton said via neworleansaints.com’s senior writer John DeShazier.

Thankfully, the Saints will have options.

Caleb Farley may drop in the draft: he should be their top priority. Asante Samuel Jr. and Jaycee Horn are both high-level prospects that could also be drafted by the Saints in the first round. New Orleans has the 28th-overall selection.

Instead of using that pick on a cornerback, the Saints could play it risky and skip adding one of the top-five prospects at the position and instead target Richard Sherman in free agency. Sherman was part of Seattle’s Legion of Boom and is one of the top cornerbacks still on the free agency market.

Sherman, Farley or Samuel would be a win for the Saints. We should know the direction the team is headed in the next few weeks as Day 1 of the NFL draft is under a week away.