Russ
Yeast.
Russ
Yeast.
Kansas St.
"A son of an NFL receiver who moved from corner to safety, won a Rams starting job in camp and lost it by midseason, then spent years as a special teams body on five different practice squads."Pre-draft read
A compact 5-10, 192-pound defensive back who ran 4.58 on his pro day with a 37.5-inch vertical and a 6.82 three-cone, the agility number that matters most for a player who has to change direction in the slot. He played corner early at Louisville and moved to safety, and that dual background shows in how comfortably he drops into the box or rotates deep.
He is an instinctive zone defender who reads the quarterback's eyes and drives on the throw, which is where his six career interceptions came from. He tackles willingly and takes good angles in run support. The limits are physical: he is short, his 31 3/4-inch arms are below the line teams want, and he does not have the recovery speed to survive when a vertical route gets behind him.
A zone-heavy defense with split-safety looks that keeps him facing the quarterback and lets his instincts rather than his speed decide the rep.
Year 1: core special teamer and dime defensive back. Ceiling: a spot starter at free safety in a two-high structure.
A single-high man defense that leaves him alone on an island against a vertical receiver, where his 4.58 speed gets exposed immediately.
Every good rep of his college tape starts with his eyes on the quarterback, not on the receiver.
Kansas State safety Russ Yeast
His first-team All-Big 12 season in Manhattan.
Russ Yeast defensive back highlights
Zone reads, breaks on the ball and open-field tackling.
Kansas State DB Russ Yeast recaps his pro day
The workout that produced his 4.58 and 37.5-inch vertical.
Yeast was born in Danville, Kentucky and played at Center Grove High School in Greenwood, Indiana. Football is the family business: his father Craig was a star receiver at Kentucky who played in the NFL and the CFL, and his mother Tori played basketball at Kentucky.
He signed with Louisville and played corner as a true freshman in 2017, appearing in 12 games with 23 tackles and two pass breakups. His sophomore year was essentially lost, with only eight tackles in 11 games. He moved to defensive back full time in 2019 and broke out with 61 tackles, four pass breakups and two forced fumbles across 11 games, then added 45 tackles, an interception returned 21 yards and three breakups in 2020.
He transferred to Kansas State for his final season and delivered the best year of his career: 48 tackles, four interceptions for 11 yards, 10 pass breakups and a forced fumble in 13 games, earning first-team All-Big 12 honors. He finished with 185 tackles, six interceptions, 19 pass breakups and four forced fumbles over 58 college games. He was a productive, versatile, undersized defensive back with ordinary timed speed, which put him at the very end of the seventh round.
- 01
Ball skills
10 pass breakups and four interceptions in his final season alone, driving on throws from depth in zone coverage.
- 02
Positional versatility
five years split between outside corner, nickel and safety, giving a defense several ways to use him.
- 03
Change of direction
a 6.82 three-cone at 192 pounds, which is the agility profile of a functional slot defender.
- 04
Tackling willingness
185 career tackles including 61 in 2019, and he consistently comes downhill to meet runners.
- 05
Football family background
the son of a former NFL and CFL receiver, with the preparation habits coaching staffs noticed.
- 01
Size and length
5-10 with 31 3/4-inch arms, well under the measurements teams want at either safety or outside corner.
- 02
Long speed
a 4.58 pro day 40 leaves him without the recovery gear once a receiver stacks him on a vertical route.
- 03
Man coverage
he is far better reading the quarterback in zone than mirroring a route from a press alignment.
- 04
Consistency in the run fit
he arrives with effort but gets washed out by blockers who reach his frame first.
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Louisville | 12 | 23 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| 2018 | Louisville | 11 | 8 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | Louisville | 11 | 61 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| 2020 | Louisville | 11 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 2021 | Kansas State | 13 | 48 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 1 |
| Career | — | 58 | 185 | 0.5 | 6 | 19 | 4 |
Season totals sum exactly to the published career line of 185 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss, six interceptions, 19 pass breakups and four forced fumbles. The 2020 and 2021 seasons were cross-checked against cfbstats and match exactly. Starts are not published by season.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
The Rams safety he replaced, and the same profile: special teams first, rotational starter second.
An undersized, physical safety who found a long run of starts through instincts.
A safety whose career became a sequence of practice squad stops around the league.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
Yeast has had the career of a player whose evaluation was exactly right. The Rams took him 253rd overall and he stuck, playing special teams and rotational defense as a rookie. The following training camp opened up: with Taylor Rapp and Nick Scott both gone in free agency, Yeast won the starting free safety job in Los Angeles in 2023. He lost it by midseason when veteran John Johnson replaced him.
That is roughly where his ceiling settled. He fought for a roster spot in 2024, made the team as a backup, and was waived on September 14. What followed was a tour of the league: Carolina's practice squad on September 18 with a promotion a week later, Arizona's practice squad on November 6, Houston's on November 27, then Cincinnati's on August 28, 2025. The Bengals released him in final cuts on August 30, 2026 and re-signed him to the practice squad the next day. The career line reads 82 tackles and five pass breakups. That is a real NFL sample for the 253rd pick, and the half-season of starting is more than most seventh-round defensive backs ever get. The undersized frame and the missing recovery speed are exactly what kept it from becoming more.