Green Bay Packers Trade Josh Jackson for Isaac Yiadom

According to Jordan Raanan of ESPN, the Green Bay Packers have made a trade for Isaac Yiadom, formerly of the New York Giants.

As first reported by Rob Demovsky, the Packers will be sending Josh Jackson to New York to acquire Yiadom. Given Jackson’s performance during Saturday’s game where he allowed 7 receptions on 10 targets, it was quite clear that he wasn’t going to make the final roster, so Green Bay opted to get a player in return instead of just straight-up cutting him.

Yiadom was the 99th selection in the third round of the 2018 draft by Denver—a round later than Jackson. He spent his college career playing at Boston College.

Yiadom measures in at 6’1”, weighing 190 pounds, and posted a 4.52 40-yard dash time, along with a Relative Athletic Score (RAS) of 6.14–which is slightly above average.

Over his three-year career, Yiadom has appeared in  45 games, including 19 starts, and has allowed a completion rate of 67 percent on 142 targets and 13.3 yards per catch. He’s come away with one interception, nine pass breakups, and been called for eight penalties, according to PFF ($$).

Specifically, in 2020 with the Giants, Yiadom appeared in all 16 games, 10 of which were starts,  and allowed six touchdowns, tallied five pass breakups, and allowed a completion rate of 63 percent on 54 targets.

It’s also worth noting that Yiadom has 489 career special teams snaps—an important aspect for anyone fighting for a roster spot.

Of the 88 players on the Green Bay Packers roster at the moment, 10 of them are still cornerbacks after the Yiadom-Jackson swap.

As it currently stands, Jaire Alexander, Kevin King, Eric Stokes, and Chandon Sullivan are locks, and I’d also include Shemar Jean-Charles in that group as well. Kabion Ento has asserted himself as the sixth cornerback on the depth chart, while Ka’dar Hollman, Dominique Martin, and Stanford Samuels appear to be on the outside looking in—and I don’t think it’s particularly close.

Now add Yiadom to the mix, who like Jackson, has not lived up to his draft status at this point in his career, but he will provide some additional, and needed, competition on the back-end of the depth chart, as well as someone who can compete on special teams—again, an important aspect.

Given what we’ve seen from Yiadom over his career, expectations should be tempered and he certainly isn’t a roster lock. The Green Bay Packers just had the opportunity to move on from Jackson, who was likely going to be cut any way, and can now take a swing to see if they can unlock something in Yiadom’s game.