Thirteen years removed from his first, the importance of the offseason training program is not lost on New Orleans Saints defensive end Cam Jordan.
Technically, the OTA sessions are voluntary. But there’s no question whether Jordan, one of the Saints’ team captains since 2015, will be in attendance this week when they begin.
“I love it,” Jordan said. “It doesn’t matter what part of the career it is, I love being out there. I love being around teammates.
“Honestly, it’s that much easier to buy back in when you don’t remove yourself.”
The Saints’ first three-day stretch of OTAs will run from Tuesday to Wednesday. The same will be the case for next week. The last chunk will be Monday to Wednesday from June 5-7.
In total, that’s nine days of work over the course of three weeks.
Saints coach Dennis Allen is rather optimistic about the upcoming turnout.
“I don’t expect that it’ll be 100%,” he said. “But I think as we’ve had throughout all of our offseason program, I would expect that there’d be a pretty significant number of guys that are going to be there.”
New Orleans already hosted its rookie minicamp last weekend. Mandatory minicamp will be June 13-15. Dates for the summer training camp have yet to be announced.
The 2023 preseason is less than three months away. The regular season is less than four.
“I can’t wait for everyone to be in the locker room just because I’m a locker room type of guy, trying to get into brotherhood,” Saints second-round draft pick and first-year defensive end Isaiah Foskey said. “I feel like that’s what the Saints try to embody, and that’s why I want to be a part of them.”
The veteran Foskey is most looking forward to meeting is Jordan, the Saints’ all-time sack leader as of last season.
Jordan is the only consistent starter returning from the 2022 defensive line. Fellow end Marcus Davenport and tackles Shy Tuttle and David Onyemata signed elsewhere in free agency.
Otherwise, defensive ends Tanoh Kpassagnon, Carl Granderson and Payton Turner are back, along with defensive tackle Malcom Roach. But they all combined for 12 starts — less than Jordan’s 16 alone.
In addition to Foskey, the Saints drafted defensive tackle Bryan Bresee with a first-round pick. They also added two more tackles in Khalen Saunders and Nathan Shepherd via free agency.
Having all the newcomers at OTAs would be beneficial for bonding purposes.
“That’s something that we can cultivate in training camp, of course,” Jordan said. “But you love to get more time with your D-line.”
And the defense as a whole.
While he was on vacation in Spain, Jordan missed some of the team-bonding experiences linebacker Demario Davis planned — such as bowling and a visit to Dave and Buster’s. But as soon as Jordan returned to New Orleans, he set up a go-karting day at NOLA Motorsports Park, and the defense went earlier this month.
Like with OTAs, the more time together, the better.
“There’s a reason why I feel like the difference between a good team and a great team,” Jordan said, “is how close you are in the locker room at time.”
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