Cameron Jordan records 100th career sack, joining Rickey Jackson in an exclusive Saints club (2024)

It's safe to say Cam Jordan missed playing football.

A week after sitting out the first game of his NFL career thanks to a positive COVID test, Jordan was a relentless force in the New Orleans Saints 9-0 shutout of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

He sacked Tom Brady twice, reaching a milestone that only one other Saints player had ever hit before. And even when he wasn’t dropping Brady behind the line of scrimmage he was still making life miserable, ruining the Bucs only real scoring opportunity by chasing Brady down from behind to force a fumble that preserved the shutout. He played like a man who saw life without football and did not like what he saw.

Speaking after the game, Jordan said he’d avoided reporters all week because he didn’t want to talk about how disconsolate it made him to miss last week’s game, especially when he never felt any symptoms related to his positive test. He even isolated from his family the entire week, trying to string together two negative tests, to no avail.

So instead, he watched a Saints game with them for the first time ever.

“(Last) Sunday, I was sick to my stomach,” Jordan said. “I almost didn’t watch the game. Then I was like, ‘Who would I be if I didn’t watch the game?’ … I made a seven-layer bean dip, put my kids on — they’d never had that, they were excited. It was great to be with the family while watching the game, and at the same time, it was sickening.”

Sickening, or exactly what he needed? Saints defensive coordinator Dennis Allen, who filled in as the team’s head coach Sunday while Sean Payton dealt with his own COVID issues, joked that the team had been trying to find a way to lessen Jordan’s snap counts anyway.

“He looked good,” Allen said.

The first item on the docket Sunday night was hitting triple figures, a mark he’d been chasing for a while: Jordan became the second player to record 100 sacks entirely in a Saints uniform, joining Hall of Famer and Dome Patrol legend Rickey Jackson.

“Sacks are hard to come by, and certainly Cam’s been one of the better ones in our league for a long time at being able to get pressure on the quarterback,” Allen said. “I just can’t say enough about what he means to our team, the defense, the team in general, our organization, the way he represents himself both on and off the football field, he’s a class guy and I’ve been fortunate enough I’ve had an opportunity to be around him and coach him. He’s just a hell of a player.”

He entered the night needing 1.5 sacks to hit the mark, a number he’d been sitting on since Week 11, and he didn't even need the entire first half to reach the milestone.

To record his first sack of the night, Jordan rushed from an unfamiliar place, lining up on the interior of the defensive line. He beat guard Alex Cappa and dropped Brady for a seven-yard loss on third down.

The sack that put him in the century club with Jackson was vintage Cam Jordan: Lining up as the left defensive end, he beat the Buccaneers superb right tackle Tristan Wirf with a power rush, clubbing Wirfs off balance to drop Brady for another drive-killing sack on third down.

It appeared Jordan knew he’d hit the milestone after the sack, judging from his amped-up celebration.

“Phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal,” said linebacker Demario Davis. “One hundred sacks, that’s a remarkable career he’s put on. He’s been a leader on this team for a long time. He’s a special player.”

Jordan paced a Saints defense that harassed Brady all night. The Buccaneers’ legendary quarterback looked uncharacteristically rattled for much of the game, completing just 54.3 % of his passes and turning the ball over twice. Prior to Sunday night, a Brady-led offense hadn’t been held scoreless since 2006.

Tampa had only one really strong scoring opportunity Sunday, and it was Jordan who snuffed it out.

The Bucs had driven inside the Saints’ 30 yard line and were facing a third and seven when Brady, flushed out of the pocket by Marcus Davenport, tried to pick up the yardage with his legs.

“Everyone knows Tom is a scrambler,” Jordan joked about the notoriously lead-footed quarterback.

Jordan came screaming in from behind Brady and punched the ball out of Brady’s hands, the first of two second-half turnovers forced by the Saints defense. Marshon Lattimore recovered the fumble, keeping Tampa off the scoreboard.

Before Sunday night, Jordan was slogging through one of his least productive seasons. He only recorded four sacks before Sunday, which was his lowest total through 12 games since his 2011 rookie season when he recorded one sack the entire season.

But against the Buccaneers, Jordan looked like he’d turned the clock back to 2019. Maybe it was the week away from the game, or maybe it was the bean dip.

Jordan is one of five active NFL players to reach 100 career sacks. He still has some work to do to catch Jackson, who recorded 115 sacks in a Saints uniform (and 136 in his career).

Afterward, he didn’t want to speak too much about hitting the individual milestone, saying he prefers to leave such talk to the offseasons when the team goals are not at stake, adding only that it “feels good” before thanking his family.

But his teammates had no problem doing the talking for him.

“It’s a special moment,” Davis said. “He deserves it, he deserves everything that comes with that.”