The New Orleans Saints have ensured star edge rusher Cameron Jordan will not enter the final year of his contract.
The Saints and Jordan agreed to a two-year, $27.5 million extension, NFL Network Insider Ian Rapoport reported Friday, per sources informed of the pact. The team later announced the deal
Jordan was set to enter the final year of a three-year, $52.5 million extension signed in 2019. Now, the 34-year-old is under contract through the 2025 campaign.
"To sit here and be embraced by the city of New Orleans, to be able to start so many initiatives and everything that I've been able to do in this city, being empowered not only by the Saints' staff, just a phenomenal staff from Day 1," Jordan told reporters on Friday after signing his new deal, via the team's website. "It has been such a phenomenal and amazing experience that I couldn't see myself being anything but Black and Gold."
The extension is no real surprise, as zero people with a pulse believed Jordan would play for anyone besides the Saints in his career. The new deal makes that essentially official.
"I don't want to have to go to a different franchise," Jordan added. "I want to finish my career here. I want my storyline to be here. I would love that my story has been drafted here, kept here, been here. The story is to let it unfold, finish and be here. I can't wait to give everything that I've been giving to the Saints, to the city, to the community, to my family, to continue doing so for the foreseeable future."
Despite getting up in age, Jordan remains a force off the edge. He's earned six straight Pro Bowl trips after starting his career as one of the more underrated forces in the league.
In 12 seasons, he's earned one first-team All-Pro nod, two second-team All-Pros and eight Pro Bowls. Jordan's 115.5 career sacks rank 32nd all-time and second in Saints franchise history, behind only Rickey Jackson's 123.
The Saints lost a lot of beef up front this offseason and are counting heavily on Jordan to disrupt the quarterback. New Orleans is young along the line, with Bryan Bresee (first-rounder) and Isaiah Foskey (second-rounder) slated to play key roles alongside Jordan, a willing mentor. It wouldn't be a stunner to see the Saints add a veteran up front at some point.
