The San Francisco 49ers suffered some rather significant losses from their 2024 roster during the league's free-agency period. From transactions made due to salary cap ramifications to players choosing to take their talents elsewhere in search of a larger contract, there will be new faces in a variety of places once the Niners take the field for training camp later this summer.
While every player that departed the organization had their own respective reasons for choosing to do so, there is no doubt that there will be some remorse felt along the way as not every situation in the league is like the one in the Bay Area that they elected to leave.
It is impossible to predict the future, but it seems safe to say that one player in particular who left in free agency is going to have some regrets about his decision.
Isaac Yiadom Will Regret Leaving San Francisco This Offseason
Isaac Yiadom elected to sign a three-year, $9 million deal with the New Orleans Saints this offseason bringing the former third-round back to the Big Easy for his second stint with the team. Yiadom's contract with the Saints has a max value of $10.5 million if all incentives are reached, and secured the veteran cornerback $4.86 million in the form of a signing bonus.
While this deal alone will more than double his career earnings to this point, it raises a number of questions about whether it was a smart decision on Yiadom's part from a purely football-related standpoint.
The Saints own the No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft for a reason as they were one of the league's bottom dwellers throughout the 2024 campaign. Given the new injury concerns for starting quarterback Derek Carr, the possibility of another long and arduous season being on the horizon for New Orleans is a very real one.
An average offense can make the job of the defense that much more difficult, and if the Saints have a repeat of what we saw on that side of the ball during the 2024 season, they could be climbing another uphill battle for 17 weeks later this fall. Given the fact that New Orleans found itself as a middle-of-the-pack team, at best, in a number of defensive rankings last season, they are far from an elite unit on that side of the ball and the addition of Yiadom is unlikely to change that.
This past season, Yiadom was a rotational contributor for San Francisco's defense appearing in all 17 games for the 49ers, including five starts. The 28-year-old cornerback recorded 46 total tackles to go along with two forced fumbles, two fumble recoveries and one interception. With the other losses San Francisco had on the defensive side of the ball, specifically in the secondary, there likely would have been an opportunity, and a solid one at that, for Yiadom to compete for a starting spot in San Francisco had he elected to re-sign with the team as a free agent.
If Yiadom's ultimate goal is to win a Super Bowl then he likely just made that challenge much more difficult on himself with this decision. All 49ers fans can do now is thank him for his contributions and hope that the players brought in as replacements for Yiadom and others in the secondary are able to take that group to new heights.