It’s becoming rarer and rarer to see one player stay with the same team for their entire career. It’s tough for both sides to get on the same page about when to hang up the cleats and the player usually feels like he has more left in the tank than the team does. The end result is seeing franchise legends in other uniforms that just don’t seem right — Aaron Rodgers with the Jets, Tom Brady with the Buccaneers, J.J. Watt with the Cardinals, etc. 

Longtime Saints DE Cameron Jordan feels like the latest entry into that category. After 15 years in New Orleans, the door certainly isn’t closed for him to come back in 2026 but it definitely doesn’t feel like the Saints are the frontrunners to keep the veteran pass rusher. Other teams might be able to offer more of what Jordan is looking for in terms of role and salary at this stage of his career. 

Role seems to be key for Jordan. He had double-digit sacks for the seventh time in his career last year and looked rejuvenated compared to just a couple of years earlier. Jordan has talked about how he clashed with previous iterations of the Saints’ coaching staff, either because he was pushed into a role he was less comfortable with or because he felt like his coaches were trying to sunset his career prematurely. 

Despite being on the back nine of his 30s, Jordan finished as PFF’s No. 23 highest-graded edge rusher last year and was outstanding against the run in addition to his pass rush production. It seems like he wants to find a team that still views him as a high-end pass rusher, though that could be tricky at his age. (High-end pass rushers get paid more, too, which also seems like a potential factor.)

I’m sure Jordan ideally would like to land with a bona fide contending team, but if role and salary are more important at this stage of his career, that could broaden his options. He can fit in multiple schemes as a bigger defensive end with inside-outside flexibility. One of the few tried and true ways of winning a Super Bowl is bringing in more pass rushers than you know what to do with, so that should help Jordan find an opportunity somewhere, either shortly before or during training camp. 

Jordan, 36, is a former first-round pick of the Saints back in 2011 out of Cal. He was entering the fifth year of a six-year, $61.969 million contract that included $33.469 million guaranteed that he signed back in 2015 when he agreed to a three-year extension with the Saints worth $52.5 million in 2019. 

New Orleans gave Jordan a two-year, $27.9 million contract extension through 2025 before the 2024 season.

In 2025, Jordan appeared in all 17 games for the Saints and recorded 47 total tackles, 15 tackles for loss, 10.5 sacks, two forced fumbles, one recovery and two pass defenses.

We have him included in our Top 100 Available NFL Free Agents list.

Chicago Bears

The dots to connect between Jordan and the Bears are almost too obvious. Bears DC Dennis Allen was Jordan’s head coach and/or defensive coordinator for 10 years, coinciding with the peak of the veteran pass rusher’s career. Jordan is held up as the ideal prototype for the types of defensive ends Allen wants in his system; big, powerful and disruptive against both the run and the pass. 

Defensive end also happens to still be a glaring need for the Bears. Entering this offseason, a lot of people expected the Bears to attack the defensive line to try and give them enough firepower to sustain their arrival as a contending team last season. Instead, the Bears ended up diverting their resources to other needs that cropped up due to injuries and a surprise retirement. They’ve made almost no changes to last year’s defensive line that ranked 22nd in the league with 35 sacks. 

When asked about that, Bears decision-makers have skirted the line between acknowledging that, yes, in an ideal world they would have done more to fortify their pass rush and pointing to players on the roster they expect to develop like DE Austin Booker. The Bears do have DE Montez Sweat who notched 10 of the team’s sacks last season. They could use a running mate for him, though. 

This fit is obvious enough that the Bears and Allen have been asked about it, and for what it’s worth, it didn’t sound like Chicago was champing at the bit to get Jordan in town and signed. The Bears might truly be higher on their defensive line despite how it looks on paper. This could also be a situation where the team gets to training camp and realizes it needs more production. Like most veteran players, Jordan won’t be disappointed to take his time and miss the grueling practices in the heat. 

Kansas City Chiefs

Another team that’s been connected as a potential landing spot for Jordan this offseason so far is the Chiefs. Veteran DT Chris Jones was lobbying the front office to bring in Jordan during free agency but the team clearly wanted to take a more patient approach. Kansas City did address its pass rush in the draft by taking DE R Mason Thomas in the second round, however, he’s a smaller, quicker, designated pass rusher type who probably will play more on third downs as a rookie. 

Jordan would be a more proven option to work with Jones and across from DE George Karlaftis. He would be an upgrade over Ashton Gillotte, another young, developing player, and former first-rounder Felix Anudike-Uzomah, who might not even make the squad this summer. Outside of Karlaftis, this is an unproven group of pass rushers and that could spell big trouble for the Chiefs, who are looking to get back to their Super Bowl-contending ways in 2026. Adding Jordan would take the defensive line from a potential glaring weakness that DC Steve Spagnuolo has to overcome to respectability.

(As a side note, Jordan and Spagnuolo overlapped in New Orleans for a season in 2012, though it was an unfortunate low point in an otherwise decorated career for both. The Saints set an NFL record for most yards allowed by a defense and HC Sean Payton missed the entire season due to a suspension. He moved on from Spagnuolo when he returned.)

Detroit Lions

The Lions got a gift in 2022 when the Jaguars took Travon Walker at No. 1 overall and let Aidan Hutchinson fall to the No. 2 pick. Walker has been a perfectly solid player but Hutchinson has been one of the league’s best pass rushers — a game-wrecking force who is on the short list of players who could win Defensive Player of the Year in the future. Since then, the Lions have been searching for a player who can complement Hutchinson on the other side and take advantage of the weaker matchups. It’s a champagne problem but not one they’ve really been able to crack yet. 

This year, they added veteran D.J. Wonnum, formerly with the Panthers and Vikings, and used a second-round pick on Derrick Moore out of Michigan. It’s not the worst plan the Lions have had for Hutchinson’s bookend, but there’s certainly room for improvement, considering the Lions view themselves as potential Super Bowl contenders. 

This is where Jordan could come in. Lions HC Dan Campbell was on the staff in New Orleans for four years and knows very well what Jordan can bring to the table. He wasn’t a defensive coach but the Lions’ defense draws a lot of inspiration from how the Saints ran for the last decade or so, making Jordan a projectable scheme fit. Adding him in would give the Lions a quality run stuffer on early downs who’s still capable of some pass rush production, either from there or kicking inside. It would take the pressure off Moore to be an impact player right away (and give him a mentor to learn from) and push Wonnum to the No. 4 pass rusher, a role he’s overqualified for. If you’re the Lions, you love that.