The Brees & Payton Era- Franchise Legend
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- Saints Hall of Fame
Jahri Evans
- Position
- GOffensive Line
- Number
- #73
- Saints years
- 2006–2016
- NFL career
- 2006–2017
- Era
- The Brees & Payton Era
- Franchise
- New Orleans Saints
Honors
- Super Bowl XLIV Champion
- New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame
- 4x First-team All-Pro
- 6x Pro Bowl
- NFL 2010s All-Decade Team
Also played for Green Bay Packers (2017–2017).
Why he’s a legend
The legacy
Jahri Evans came out of Bloomsburg, a Division II school in Pennsylvania, in the fourth round of the 2006 draft — the same class as Marques Colston and the same offseason as Drew Brees. He started at right guard for eleven seasons, was named first-team All-Pro four years in a row, and made the NFL’s All-Decade Team for the 2010s. Guards very rarely get that kind of recognition, which is a fair measure of how good he was.
Why he matters
- Four consecutive first-team All-Pro selections, 2009 through 2012 — more than any other offensive lineman in franchise history.
- Six Pro Bowl selections and a place on the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 2010s.
- He started all sixteen games and the entire playoff run of the Super Bowl XLIV championship season.
- A fourth-round pick from Division II Bloomsburg who became the highest-paid guard in football.
- Eleven seasons protecting the same quarterback, which is most of the reason Brees was sacked as rarely as he was.
Defining moment
The 2009 offensive line
2009 season
The Saints scored 510 points in 2009, still the franchise record, behind a line that started the same five men for most of the season. Evans was its best player and the first of his four consecutive All-Pro years came at the end of it.
Career statistics
Current through the 2017 season
With the Saints
- Seasons
- 11
- First-team All-Pro
- 4
- Pro Bowls
- 6
- Draft
- 2006, 108th overall
Where he ranks
- #1First-team All-Pro Selections by a Saints Offensive Lineman4Saints all-time
Honors & accolades
Championships & enshrinement
- Super Bowl XLIV Champion2009 season
- New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame
League awards & All-Pro
- 4x First-team All-Pro2009–2012
- NFL 2010s All-Decade Team
Selections & records
- 6x Pro Bowl2009–2013, 2016
Career timeline
12 seasons in the NFL, 11 of them in New Orleans.
- 2006New Orleans SaintsDrafted in the fourth round out of Bloomsburg
- 2007New Orleans Saints
- 2008New Orleans Saints
- 2009New Orleans SaintsSuper Bowl XLIV Champion; first All-Pro selection
- 2010New Orleans Saints
- 2011New Orleans Saints
- 2012New Orleans SaintsFourth consecutive first-team All-Pro selection
- 2013New Orleans Saints
- 2014New Orleans Saints
- 2015New Orleans Saints
- 2016New Orleans SaintsFinal season in New Orleans
- 2017Green Bay Packers
Era context
What the league looked like while Jahri Evans 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.
Data & sources
Statistics on this profile are current through the 2017 season.
- Interior line play has no traditional counting statistics. The case above rests on selections, All-Pro voting and the offenses he blocked for.
