{"id":747085,"date":"2026-02-12T13:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747085\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T13:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T13:38:16","slug":"saints-must-make-decisions-on-cam-jordan-demario-davis-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/747085\/","title":{"rendered":"Saints must make decisions on Cam Jordan, Demario Davis | Saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is hard to imagine the scenario in which both Demario Davis<\/a> and Cam Jordan<\/a> are playing in the NFL in 2026 and wearing something other than New Orleans Saints black and gold \u2014 but there is a legitimate chance that happens in the coming months.<\/p>\n

Both Jordan (36 years old) and Davis (37) are coming off productive 2025 seasons. Both have indicated a desire to play in 2026, and both will become free agents if the Saints do not reach a new contract agreement with them before the start of the new league year March 11.<\/p>\n

New Orleans has some financial incentive to get deals done, as Jordan ($18.8 million) and Davis ($14.3 million) will force the Saints to carry significant dead cap burdens if they are not re-signed before the start of the league year. If they do re-sign, New Orleans can again push some of that into the future, delaying the cap crunch.<\/p>\n

But there are a lot of other factors to consider in this.<\/p>\n

Though New Orleans has long operated outside the NFL\u2019s cutthroat norms, choosing to keep established players in the building rather than cutting ties before the inevitable cliff comes, the new power brokers in the organization could decide they want the roster to be younger and cheaper.<\/p>\n

After years of taking what were probably below-market deals<\/a> to remain in New Orleans, perhaps Jordan and Davis want to be compensated at a rate that goes beyond what the Saints are willing to pay. The two players in the twilight of their careers could also want to play<\/a> for a team that has a more direct path to the Super Bowl than the Saints, who may still be years out from truly competing despite a strong finish last season.<\/p>\n

Finally, the Saints might simply be willing to let their longtime franchise cornerstones walk to create opportunities for others. At linebacker in particular, the Saints have a promising second-year linebacker in Danny Stutsman who may be ready for a starting role.<\/p>\n

While there are obvious benefits to the young and cheap options, there are just as obvious costs that come with letting players like Davis and Jordan go that can\u2019t be accounted for on a spreadsheet.<\/p>\n

Veteran presence does matter, especially when it comes to players like Davis and Jordan who have counted themselves among the best in the world at their position in their primes. Their voices carry weight, which is evident when watching young players line up to speak with Davis or listening to Chase Young talk about how much Jordan meant when it came to untapping his vast potential last season.<\/p>\n

And, of course, that presence is not all they brought to the table. Both stars want to play in 2026 because they showed they can still impact the game.<\/p>\n

Jordan led the Saints in sacks (10\u00bd) despite playing only 54% of the defensive snaps \u2014 the second-lowest percentage in his career. After a couple down years, he showed he still has plenty to offer in the right defensive ecosystem.<\/p>\n

Davis led the Saints in tackles (143) and was, without question, the team\u2019s best linebacker. Beyond his vocal leadership, Davis also plays a crucial role as a communicator on the field.<\/p>\n

The guess here is that the Saints try to get both of their veterans back on terms that work for everyone involved \u2014 but, as the saying goes, it takes two to tango.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It is hard to imagine the scenario in which both Demario Davis and Cam Jordan are playing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":747086,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076],"tags":[7,4095,896,55,2572,2571,6,397],"class_list":{"0":"post-747085","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-saints","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-hardwall","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-saints","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanssaints","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-saints"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116057938713518425","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747085","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747085"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747085\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/747086"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747085"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747085"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747085"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}