Cam Jordan returning for final season in New Orleans

New Orleans Saints Defensive End CAM JORDAN (photo: Michael C. Hebert/New Orleans Saints)

Cameron Jordan will return for a 16th season as a Saint. After meeting with the front office today, Jordan signed a one-year, incentive-heavy deal with New Orleans. Sideline reporter Jeff Nowak told WWL First News with Tommy Tucker that bringing back the three-time All-Pro is not just ceremonial.

“He’s got a legacy here,” he said. “He’s gonna have opportunities. I don’t think it’s a situation where they keep him on the roster as a cheerleader and they throw him off to the side and say we get to you when we get to you.”

After Jordan’s first offseason as a free agent, he decided to return to New Orleans. Nowak said it would have taken a significant role on a contending team or a lucrative offer to pull him away from the franchise that drafted him 24th overall in 2011. Nowak said he’ll be in a position to produce.

“I think there’s a role for him to be had that’s similar to what he had last year, so if he was satisfied with what happened last year, he had a 10.5 sack season, I think he could get there,” he said.

In a video Jordan posted on X, he said he’d be returning for “one final season.” The eight-time Pro Bowler is the Saints’ all-time sack leader with 132. That mark is 17th in the NFL all-time, just half a sack behind Pro Football Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor. He is also second among active players behind Commanders linebacker Von Miller. Jordan could move as high as sixth all-time with another ten-sack season this year.

Jordan has not missed a game in 15 seasons wearing black and gold. A franchise great and likely future Hall of Famer, he’ll enter his final season with a franchise-leading 175 tackles for loss, 494 solo tackles and 17 forced fumbles.

He joins an edge rusher room with returning starters Chase Young and Carl Granderson. The Saints also traded a fifth-round draft pick for 2023 seventh overall pick, Tyree Wilson, and signed six-year veteran Anfernee Jennings in free agency.

Nowak said, “These are the guys he’d probably be competing with for reps, and I like his chances even at 36 years old. I think he’s a guy that can still go out there and be productive.”