Contract extension will enable Cam Jordan to complete his career as a Saint

METAIRIE – When Cam Jordan began his 13th training camp with the New Orleans Saints last week, he was asked long he planned to play.

The eight-time Pro Bowl defensive end said he was focused on 15 years and he was trying “to speak it into existence.”

He did just that.

On Friday, the Saints announced a two-year contract extension with Jordan that runs through the 2025 season – which will be his 15th.

“I couldn’t see myself being anywhere but (with) the New Orleans Saints,” Jordan said during a pre-practice news conference.

The extension reportedly is worth up to $27.5 million to New Orleans’ all-time leader in official sacks.

This was the third time he has agreed to a contract extension a year before he was able to become a free agent, following deals in 2015 and 2019.

“I didn’t want to have to go to a different team,” Jordan said. “When the love is reciprocated, it feels good, doesn’t it?

“I’m still hunting my first (Super Bowl) ring and I want it to be here.”

Jordan has perennially been one of the most active Saints players in the New Orleans community, participating in events on virtually every off day during the season.

He said he was taking his first “veteran’s day off” Friday.

“There’s a reason this news conference was at 8 a.m.,” he said.

The news conference was a Jordan family affair. Cam sat at a table in the team’s interview room by himself. (Head coach Dennis Allen would speak later during his daily post-practice news conference.)

The front row in the audience was occupied by Jordan’s wife, the couple’s four children and his father Steve, a former tight end with the Minnesota Vikings.

Cam referenced his father throughout the nearly 30-minute news conference, noting that the fact that Steve played all 13 seasons with one team (the Minnesota Vikings) and made six Pro Bowls gave him the boiler plate for his own career after the Saints selected him with the 24th pick in the first round of the 2011 draft.

The former Cal star recalled getting the draft-day phone call from the Saints after “spiraling down” the draft.

“I was so elated to hear a voice say they wanted me,” he added.

Jordan said his first goal after joining the Saints was to make a Pro Bowl after seeing his dad make six Pro Bowls.

“When I came into the league I felt like, ‘all right, I’ve got to make a Pro Bowl,’” Jordan said. “You don’t want to be the son that comes into the league right after your dad made six Pro Bowls and not make one. After that it’s all lagniappe.”

And it’s a lot of lagniappe.

Steve Jordan is a member of the Vikings’ Ring of Honor and his son undoubtedly will be elected to the Saints Hall of Fame and be enshrined in their Ring of Honor.

But those accolades will have to wait until some time after 2025.

Jordan has been selected to the last six Pro Bowls and last season he led the Saints in sacks (8.5) at age 33.

He has missed just two games during his career – one in 2021 (COVID) and one in 2022 (eye) – and last season he passed Rickey Jackson as the official Saints leader in sacks.

He has 115.5 and is eyeing Jackson’s career total of 123, which is “unofficial” because sacks were not an official NFL stat during Jackson’s rookie season (1981).

Jordan was asked if he had a sack total in mind that he was trying “to speak into existence.”

“How many sacks does it take to win a Super Bowl?” he replied.

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