There's still some ground to cover, but Rickey Jackson can sense a bit of inevitability when it comes to Cam Jordan.
"He's trying to catch me, ain't he," the NFL Hall of Famer said this week on SportsTalk with Bobby Hebert and Kristian Garic.
He was speaking, of course, in regard to the franchise record Jackson still holds with 123 career sacks, a mark that's held up for nearly three decades. Jordan sits at 107 after the 2021 season, just 16 away from the record heading into his 12th NFL season.
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Much like Jackson, Jordan has reached that mark by making the most out of his years spent in the NFL. From the first game of his career until Week 14 of the 2021 season, Jordan didn't miss a single chance to play. That first career absence was due to a positive COVID test, ending the NFL’s longest active Ironman streak. Jackson played in 208 games over his 13 seasons in New Orleans.
But the 63-year-old of Dome Patrol fame knows one thing: If he had to lose his record to anybody, he'd want it to be Jordan. The pair speak regularly, because Jackson is one of Cam's biggest fans.
“He’s a great guy," Jackson said. "I love him."
When might that record-breaking day come? The 2022 season isn't completely out of the question, though it'd take the most productive season of Jordan's career and a 16.5-sack campaign to get there by next season. Jordan's highest sack total of his career came at 15.5 in the 2019 season, and he's had 4 other years with 12 or more. The record felt far away during a down 2020 season in the sack department, with just 7.5. That low sack production stretched into the 2021 season, with Jordan failing to register one over the team's first five games. But that changed mightily down the stretch, and most notably following the COVID absence with 8.5 sacks coming throughout Weeks 15-18.
Assuming Jordan remains a Saint for the duration of his current contract, which runs through 2024 season, some point in the 2023 season feels like the safest bet, with 8.5 sacks per season aligning closely to his career average (9 per year).
If the record does fall, it'd be the second long-standing franchise mark to go down to a member of the current Saints roster. Mark Ingram returned by trade midway through the 2020 season to finally eclipse Deuce McAllister's career rushing record.
"If anybody could ever get a record of mine," Jackson said, "a guy like [Cam], you wouldn’t mind.”
But Jackson will take it in stride as he continues to enjoy his retirement. He's even got a golf outing scheduled with another famous Jordan, first name Michael (no relation).
