Could Cam Jordan Return To New Orleans This Season?

Over the last decade, the New Orleans Saints have faced an ongoing emergency of their own making. For years, dating back deep into the Drew Brees era, the Saints have regularly started the offseason WAY over the NFL‘s salary cap. But through ‘creative’ contract manipulations, the team continued to slide under the cap for the upcoming season…by mortgaging the next.

The Saints had a long-term habit of restructuring available contracts before the start of a year, to slide money around, while the bill was eventually going to come due. Its a pretty annoying math problem to go through step-by-step, but just think of it as the team paying for a season’s salary cap overage on a high interest credit card…year after year.

But over the last two seasons, that habit strategy has worked itself out (for the most part, Alvin Kamara is the remaining piece) as some of those contacts finally ended. However one of those expiring contracts is still haunting the franchise, but in a different way.

Where Will Cam Jordan Play In 2026?

One of the players who was deeply involved in the salary cap kick the can project was defensive end Cam Jordan. His contract had been restructured to free up cap space previously, but at the end of last season that contract ended.

As Cam Jordan went into free agency for the first time in his career, there was always an undercurrent of momentum to bring him back to New Orleans. But at a substantially lower rate than his previous deal. Afterall, Jordan is 36-years-old now…in NFL terms, he’s a senior citizen.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (L) poses for a photo with Cameron Jordan, #24 overall pick by the New Orleans Saints (Photo by Chris Trotman/Getty Images)

But the Saints aren’t the only team interested in Jordan’s services. His name has been linked to teams like the Chicago Bears, Kansas City Chiefs, and even the Detroit Lions. All of these teams have natural cap space, and could afford a deal that might be slightly higher than what the Saints are likely to offer…but they might be missing an element the Saints can offer.

Jordan might be more concerned about his role on a team instead of the total money on paper. Some of these other teams might over-pay, but plan to have Jordan as a part of their rotation for depth instead of a primary starting edge rusher. Which is probably how the Saints would feature Jordan.

Other Saints Want Jordan Back In New Orleans

Fellow defensive end Chase Young has been making some pretty public pushes to have the Saints bring Jordan back to the team. While he’s been vocal about it, he’s probably not the only one who wants to see a reunion.

Chase Young #99 and Cameron Jordan #94 of the New Orleans Saints celebrate (Photo by Sean Gardner/Getty Images)

Jordan’s team and the Saints front office have traded numbers already. That means there’s probably been some negotiating that has already taken place. But OTAs are on the horizon, and no deal is done. So how close are we to Jordan coming back? Probably closer than we’ve been during the offseason.

We say that because the offseason is now deep enough that if Jordan really wanted to leave the franchise just to have a change of scenery, he’d have taken an offer from one of these other options. If he wanted to play for a contender, there are options on the rumored list that fit that perfectly as well. But he hasn’t taken any of those teams up on their offers.

So it would seem that the longer Jordan remains unsigned, the more likely a return to New Orleans becomes.

Players and fans would probably, as long as it doesn’t harm the ability of the team to get better with other signings. Afterall, we rarely get to see a player of Jordan’s stature play his whole career with one team. Even Tom Brady has two different helmets on his career wall.

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