1. Cameron Jordan
It’s appropriate to put the longest-tenured Saint as the No. 1 defensive leader here. Cameron Jordan is still going strong despite being in the league for as long as he has.
The Saints’ first-round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft looked to maybe be slowing down early in the 2021 season but once he got that first sack, he never stopped. It says a lot about the man when he didn’t get a sack until Week 7 but went on to post 12.5 total sacks for the season. He struggled early but then got it going and didn’t slow down.
Jordan had to miss his first-ever game due to testing positive for COVID and that was a bummer but once he returned, he came back stronger than ever.
The long-time Saint has two years remaining on his contract and like Davis, some people flirted with the idea of trading him, but it’d only save NOLA roughly $2 million. Not worth it.
The biggest leader on the Saints’ defensive side of the ball is coming back in 2022 and that means this unit should be in good shape.