It’s not often that the fourth cornerback on a depth chart is viewed as a pressure point for a team, but when they only have three corners on the active roster, that last spot becomes a disaster waiting to happen. That’s where the New Orleans Saints found themselves, so grabbing Decamerion Richardson suddenly means more than your average waiver wire pickup.
This isn’t to overhype the player. In a perfect world, the Saints will never see Richardson line up at cornerback unless the game is practically over. The thing is the world isn’t perfect, and they were a couple of injuries away from not having another boundary corner to turn to.
Richardson gives the Saints a depth piece with good size and athleticism, standing 6-foot-2-inches and ran a 4.34 40 yard dash. As far as depth goes, optimism a good trait to have. Plus, Richardson has been a special teams guy.
Saints finally have a true corner to fill out the room
This conversation is what made releasing Isaac Yiadom such a surprise. Kool-Aid McKinstry and Quincy Riley make a high upside starting duo, and Martin Emerson is a backup corner with high level starting experience. It’s a strong top 3, but sometimes it is quality not quality.
After those three, the Saints would have to turn to Mike Reid or Jayden Price. Good players but they haven’t been boundary corners for the Saints.
Price has been exceptional this offseason, but he’s worked as the backup STAR behind Jonas Sanker. Price has experience on the outside from college and the UFL, but that hasn’t been his role in New Orleans. We've asked for the Saints to get him some reps on the outside in the face of Yiadom's struggles, but they opted to not do that.
Reid has been exclusively used as a safety by Brandon Staley, and sometimes those safety snaps have led to him dropping down into the slot. He primarily played on the inside with the Panthers last year and once again took no snaps out wide.
Like Price, Reid also played outside corner in college, so it wouldn't be foreign to him either. Having to turn to either one of these players in a pickle is a volatile solution. They simply haven’t been asked to do it in this defense, so stepping out to the boundary would be like asking them to step out of position.
That’s why it made sense to get an outside corner like Richardson for a “break glass” type of situation. He is an outside corner who has played on the boundary with the Raiders.
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