18. Cameron Jordan

Team: New Orleans Saints

Position: DE

Experience: 8 Years

When the New Orleans Saints are brought up as potential Super Bowl contenders, immediately all of the attention goes to their offense. With Drew Brees at quarterback, Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas as two versatile weapons, and Sean Payton being an offensive-minded coach it’s easy to see why much of the focus is on that side of the ball. However, New Orleans has a special player on the other side as well. Defensive end, Cameron Jordan is one of the—if not the—best players at his position in the league today.

Jordan has spent all eight of his seasons in the NFL with the Saints. In that time he’s made four Pro Bowls (2013, 2015. 2017, and 2018) and was selected to the First-Team All-Pro once (2017). For his career he has 71.5 sacks, 25 of which have come in the last two years alone. Every season he’s recorded double-digit sacks he’s been selected to the Pro Bowl. He has played in every one of the 128 regular season games of his career, starting all but one of them. His presence has served as a steadying force for a Saints defense that has seen a lot of turnover and change during the course of his career.

In our discussion of previous defensive linemen on this list we mentioned how opponents would try to show them different looks with double teams, chip blocks, etc. The same holds true for Jordan, yet most times the extra attention doesn’t slow him down. Teams have sometimes put three blockers in his path and he’s found ways to still make plays. Jordan is both explosive and forceful coming off the line of scrimmage. He’s not a one-trick pony as he can rush from the inside and outside depending on the down and distance of the play.

For the Saints, having a player like Jordan that opposing teams must game plan and account for at all times helps open lanes for his teammates. As noted above, the defense in New Orleans hasn’t always been up to par with what the offense execution wise but as of late it’s been Jordan’s dominance that helped them come close to meeting those high standards. His ability to singlehandedly wreak havoc in opponent’s backfields is something this team treasures.

New Orleans believes it is Super Bowl or bust this season. We all saw the uncalled defensive pass interference in the NFC Championship game last year. They, rightfully, believe it should’ve been them taking on the New England Patriots. However, they have another shot this season to get to the big game. The offense once again looks like it should be one of the better units in the entire league. It will be on Jordan and the defense to hold up their end of the bargain once more. The 30-year-old pass rusher has showed no signs of slowing down and that’s welcomed news to the Saints. Another Pro Bowl-caliber season will be needed from him if New Orleans is to make another deep run in the postseason.