The Brees & Payton Era- Franchise Legend
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Cameron Jordan
- Position
- DEDefensive Line
- Number
- #94
- Saints years
- 2011–2025
- Era
- The Brees & Payton Era
- Franchise
- New Orleans Saints
Honors
- First-team All-Pro
- 8x Pro Bowl
- Saints career sack record holder
Cameron Jordan is still on the roster. This page is the career; the current-season page carries his snaps, usage and efficiency from the season the site measures.
Why he’s a legend
The legacy
Cameron Jordan was drafted in 2011, two years after the championship, and has spent his entire career in New Orleans — long enough to pass Rickey Jackson for the franchise sack record and to be the last remaining link to the Drew Brees teams. He is a rare thing in the modern league: a first-round defensive lineman who met the projection and then kept meeting it for more than a decade without missing games.
Why he matters
- He passed Rickey Jackson in 2022 to become the franchise’s all-time sack leader, a record that had stood since 1993.
- Eight Pro Bowl selections, more than any defensive player in franchise history.
- First-team All-Pro in 2017, when he had 13 sacks for a defense that won the division after three straight 7–9 seasons.
- Availability as a skill: he started every game for the Saints from 2013 through 2023, an eleven-season run.
- He has been the defense’s public voice through three head coaches and the end of the Brees era.
Defining moment
Passing the Dome Patrol
2022 season
Jordan moved past Rickey Jackson’s 115 career sacks during the 2022 season to take sole possession of the franchise record. Jackson had held it for twenty-nine years, and had been the first Saint in Canton; taking the record from him is the clearest measure of what Jordan’s decade has been worth.
Career statistics
Current through the 2024 season
With the Saints
- Sacks
- 118.5
- Seasons
- 14Through the 2024 season.
- Pro Bowls
- 8
Where he ranks
- #1All-Time Saints Sacks118.5Saints all-time · through the 2024 season
- #1Pro Bowls by a Saints Defender8Saints all-time
Career production
Sacks by season
When was he at his most disruptive?
Cameron Jordan: sacks in each of 14 seasons, from 1 to 15.5. The table below carries every value.
View the 14 rows behind this chart
| Season | Team | Sacks |
|---|---|---|
| 2011 | New Orleans | 1.0 |
| 2012 | New Orleans | 8.0 |
| 2013 | New Orleans | 12.5 |
| 2014 | New Orleans | 7.5 |
| 2015 | New Orleans | 10.0 |
| 2016 | New Orleans | 7.5 |
| 2017 | New Orleans | 13.0 |
| 2018 | New Orleans | 12.0 |
| 2019 | New Orleans | 15.5 |
| 2020 | New Orleans | 7.5 |
| 2021 | New Orleans | 12.5 |
| 2022 | New Orleans | 8.5 |
| 2023 | New Orleans | 2.0 |
| 2024 | New Orleans | 1.0 |
Season by season
| 2011 | 16 | 1.0 |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | 16 | 8.0 |
| 2013 | 16 | 12.5 |
| 2014 | 16 | 7.5 |
| 2015 | 16 | 10.0 |
| 2016 | 16 | 7.5 |
| 2017 | 16 | 13.0 |
| 2018 | 16 | 12.0 |
| 2019 | 16 | 15.5 |
| 2020 | 16 | 7.5 |
| 2021 | 17 | 12.5 |
| 2022 | 17 | 8.5 |
| 2023 | 17 | 2.0 |
| 2024 | 11 | 1.0 |
| Career | 222 | 118.5 |
Best seasons
Best season
2019 — Cameron Jordan
15.5 sacks
- Career high in sacks
- Pro Bowl selection
- Saints won 13 games and the division
His most productive season as a pass rusher, on a 13–3 team, at 30 years old — the age at which edge players are usually described as declining.
Best season
2017 — Cameron Jordan
13 sacks, First-team All-Pro
- Only first-team All-Pro selection of his career
- Saints won the NFC South after three 7–9 seasons
- Anchored a defense that improved by more than 100 points allowed
The season the post-Super-Bowl rebuild turned, and the one that made him the defense rather than a good player on it.
Honors & accolades
League awards & All-Pro
- First-team All-Pro2017
Selections & records
- 8x Pro Bowl2013, 2015, 2017–2022
- Saints career sack record holder
Career timeline
15 seasons in the NFL, 15 of them in New Orleans.
- 2011New Orleans Saints16 gamesDrafted 24th overall out of California
- 2012New Orleans Saints16 games
- 2013New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro BowlFirst Pro Bowl selection; 12.5 sacks
- 2014New Orleans Saints16 games
- 2015New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro Bowl
- 2016New Orleans Saints16 games
- 2017New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro BowlFirst-team All-ProFirst-team All-Pro; Saints win the NFC South
- 2018New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro Bowl
- 2019New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro BowlCareer-high 15.5 sacks
- 2020New Orleans Saints16 gamesPro Bowl
- 2021New Orleans Saints17 gamesPro Bowl
- 2022New Orleans Saints17 gamesPro BowlPasses Rickey Jackson as the franchise’s all-time sack leader
- 2023New Orleans Saints17 games
- 2024New Orleans Saints11 games
- 2025New Orleans Saints
Era context
What the league looked like while Cameron Jordan played it. Raw totals across eras are not like-for-like.
The Brees & Payton Era
2006–2020
A quarterback nobody else wanted, a coach nobody had hired, and a Super Bowl.
- The most pass-friendly rules environment in NFL history to that point; raw passing totals from these years dwarf every earlier era.
- Sixteen-game seasons throughout, with a 12-team playoff field from 2020.
- The franchise won seven division titles in this span, including four consecutive from 2017 to 2020.
The Modern Saints
2021–present
Life after the quarterback who rewrote the record book.
- Seasons expanded to 17 games in 2021, so single-season totals from 2021 onward are not directly comparable to earlier ones.
- The playoff field has been 14 teams since 2020.
- Careers in progress: statistics for active players are stated through a named season and will move.
Data & sources
Statistics on this profile are current through the 2024 season.
- An active career: everything above is complete through the 2024 season and will change. The 2025 season is not compiled into this profile.
- Sacks were first tracked officially in 1982, so his total and Rickey Jackson’s are directly comparable — unlike pass-rush production from before that year.
