By Brent Sobleski | Bleacher Report
The New Orleans Saints got themselves a ball magnet when they chose Stanford cornerback Paulson Adebo with the 76th pick in the 2021 NFL draft.
Adebo's third-round availability should prove to be a blessing after the Saints entered the draft with the league's worst cornerback room.
Aside from Marshon Lattimore, the roster didn't feature another quality outside corner. The Saints cut veteran Janoris Jenkins for salary-cap purposes. From there, Patrick Robinson, P.J. Williams and safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson are better working over the slot than outside the numbers.
So it came as no surprise when Saints head coach Sean Payton told reporters that Adebo will start his career at left outside corner. He has to because options are limited.
The organization knew this. Payton and general manager Mickey Loomis set their sights on trading up in the first round to select South Carolina's Jaycee Horn or Alabama's Patrick Surtain II. Payton described how the front office tried to attack draft day during an interview on the Rich Eisen Show:
"It was pretty simple. There were a couple of players that we'd move up for, but for us, we have a 'must' at corner. So we had two corners graded—both Horn and Surtain—with real high grades. And very quickly, early in the week, it's pretty common for teams to say, 'Hey, we have an interest.' Everyone's basically open for business.
"But ultimately, there wasn't a team wanting to move out of the first 10 picks. And so, I think that lasted all of a half an hour maybe, the morning of reaching out to these teams. And the cost would've been, if we found a trade partner, too high. So at that point, our feeling was, it's going to come to us at 28, so let's make sure we have our cloud of players ready. And that's exactly what happened."
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