From their early NFL days, when supporters in the Superdome donned paper bags on their heads, to winning a Super Bowl, the New Orleans Saints have come a long way.
We will list the greatest Saints players of all time here.Despite the team’s protracted times of hardship, they have produced some outstanding football players.
In 1967, the Saints joined the league as an expansion franchise. After then, the team would not even have a winning record or qualify for the playoffs for 20 years. In 1987, after going 12-3 and qualifying for the postseason, New Orleans finally broke through, falling to the Minnesota Vikings in the Wild Card Round.
Before the Saints would win a postseason game, another 13 seasons would pass. That did not occur until the Saints defeated the St. Louis Rams, the reigning champions, in a 31-28 Wild Card shootout in 2000.
From then on, though, things improved when quarterback Drew Brees and head coach Sean Payton arrived, and the two helped win the team a title. Thus, it should come as no surprise that this ranking of the top five players in Saints history begins that way.
After selecting Drew Brees in the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft, the San Diego Chargers gave up on him and moved on to Philip Rivers in 2005. Although club physicians refused to rule out Brees’ shoulder injury, Nick Saban stated he was still hoping to sign him to play for the Miami Dolphins. At that point, Sean Payton and the Saints intervened, and the rest is history as they say.
From the beginning, Brees and Payton seemed to be a combination made in heaven. With 4,418 yards passing in 2006, the small quarterback topped the league. He also finished second in the NFL MVP, Offensive Player of the Year, and Comeback Player of the Year categories, falling short to his former teammate LaDainian Tomlinson in the first two categories and New York Jets quarterback Chad Pennington in the final one.
Brees would lead the league in passing attempts four times, completions five times, completion percentage, passing yards, and yards per game six times during the course of the following 14 seasons. In addition, he would go on to place second in the MVP voting three more times, despite winning offensive player of the year in both 2008 and 2011.
Brees had made 12 Pro Bowls in the Big Easy and one First-Team All-Pro team before he eventually left the team at the age of 41. In addition, at the end of the 2009 season, the quarterback guided his team to victory in the Super Bowl, defeating the Indianapolis Colts 31-17 and winning MVP of the game.
After the 2020 season, Brees announced his retirement. He is second all-time in passing yards (80,358), touchdown passes (571), and completions (7,142), with Tom Brady being the only player to surpass him in all three categories.
Willie Roaf, an offensive tackle, was split between the Saints and the Kansas City Chiefs, but he played most of his nine seasons (as opposed to four) in Louisiana.
The native of Arkansas actually attended Louisiana Tech for his collegiate education four years prior to joining the Saints, allowing him to travel to the Bayou State. He excelled as a blocker there and was selected eighth overall in the 1992 NFL Draft.
From the outset of his first season, Roaf lived up to his draft position, starting every 16 games at right tackle. Following that season, left tackle Richard Cooper was traded for Roaf by Saints head coach Jim Mora, and the rookie was selected to his first Pro Bowl and First Team All-Pro.
After that, the OT played and started 131 games in New Orleans, where he also made seven of his eleven Pro Bowls and five of his nine All-Pro teams. Sadly for Roaf, the Saints struggled during this time and only made it to the postseason once while the lineman was on the team. In 2012, he was admitted to the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The Saints’ linebacker corps of the 1980s was the most talented position group in franchise history. Running backs, quarterbacks, and wide receivers in the Superdome and beyond were scared by the “Dome Patrol,” as they were nicknamed, as they flew over the field.
In this group, Vaughan Johnson, Sam Mills, and Pat Swilling all had a role, but Rickey Jackson stood out as the greatest. The Pitt product, selected in the second round of the 1981 NFL Draft, recorded a stellar rookie season with 8.0 sacks and 125 tackles.
After a lackluster sophomore season, Jackson went on to have seasons with 12.0, 11.0, 9.0, and 12.0 sacks; he was selected to the Pro Bowl each season and was named to the Second Team All-Pro twice. The Saints selected Swilling in the final season of that group (1986) and added Mills and Johnson to form the “Dome Patrol.”
Although Jackson was still a top player in 1987, when the Saints made their first-ever playoff appearance in the middle of a three-year playoff run, he experienced a comeback in 1991 and went on to produce 11.5, 13.5, and 11.5 sacks from ’91 to ’93, earning two more Pro Bowl selections and two Second-Team All-Pro selections in his final two seasons with the team.
Jackson played for the San Francisco 49ers for the last two years of his career before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2010.
Because Sam Mills is inducted into the Saints Ring of Honor and the Hall of Fame while Pat Swilling is not, this could be contentious. However, Swilling was the superior player during the pinnacles of their respective careers.
Swilling was Rickey Jackson’s exact opposite and was selected in the third round in 1986 out of Georgia Tech. When combined, they were just as effective against quarterbacks as most OLB tandems in league history.
Swilling qualified for the Pro Bowl in each of the five seasons from 1989 to 1993 and was named to the First Team All-Pro thrice. In four of those seasons, he recorded double-digit sacks; in 1991, he led the league with 17.0 sacks, which helped him win Defensive Player of the Year.
Despite being one of the greatest players not in Canton, Swilling is not in the Hall of Fame like Mills and Jackson are.
The battle for the final slot among the all-time great Saints players was fierce between 3-4 defensive end Cameron Jordan and offensive lineman Jahri Evans.
Although Evans has the Super Bowl and All-Pro advantage, Jordan is ultimately in a better position to win postseason honors since he has played for the Saints for a longer period of time than Evans, who only played for the Green Bay Packers for one season.
Jordan, who was selected with the 24th overall choice in the 2011 NFL Draft from Cal, was somewhat of a late bloomer. In his first season, he started 15 of 16 games and was a reliable starter from the start. He did, however, have two double-digit sack seasons and two Pro Bowls in his first six seasons, which was very good but not outstanding.
Jordan’s situation drastically changed in 2017, as he went on to become one of the top 3-4 DEs in the league. Jordan received six consecutive Pro Bowl choices, one First-Team All-Pro selection, and two Second-Team All-Pro nominations between 2017 and 2022. In addition, he recorded four seasons with ten or more sacks, including 13.0 in 2017 and 15.5 in 2019.
Jordan has only missed two games in his career while still with the Saints, one in 2022 and one in 2021.