In Cam Jordan’s mind, his defensive line teammate Bryan Bresee should have made the Pro Bowl in 2024.
Bresee, in his second season after the New Orleans Saints selected him in the first round out of Clemson, recorded 7.5 sacks and 14 quarterback hits last season. Those numbers placed him in a select group among NFL defensive tackles, with his sacks ranking third in the NFL and his quarterback hits ranking 10th.
“Come on,” Jordan said. “Seven and a half will normally get you in.”
There’s no denying Bresee’s skill as a pass rusher. His 12 sacks since his 2023 rookie season rank sixth among NFL defensive tackles, ahead of some big-name players such as Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter and Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons.
What was likely holding Bresee back compared to his contemporaries was his relative ineffectiveness as a run defender. According to Pro Football Focus, more than two thirds of Bresee’s snaps came as a pass rusher and that was likely for good reason — Bresee ranked 218th out of 219 interior defensive linemen in the service’s run defense grades.
But things may be different this year.
The Saints hired Brandon Staley to serve as the defensive coordinator, and he is bringing an entirely new scheme with him. That could be beneficial for Bresee, whose regular alignment is going to look different than it did under former head coach Dennis Allen.
In Allen’s 4-3 scheme, Bresee was most often playing as the 3-technique defensive tackle, an alignment that often had him over the offensive guard’s outside shoulder. In Staley’s scheme, he will more often line up directly over the offensive tackle in a 4-technique position.
Or, in Bresee’s words, he will be “further away from the football” — which could lead to more opportunities for him to lean into his strengths as a player.
“Lining up outside on a tackle or whatever, there’s more room,” Bresee said. “You’re able to move more, there’s more space. Most of the time, your double teams are not a guard and a tackle, it’s a tackle and a tight end.”
Or the scheme may simply present him with more opportunities to not face a double team at all. Jordan described Staley’s defense as one that is “geared toward one-on-ones.”
“Head up on a tackle, you’re no longer splitting the guard and center,” Jordan said. “You’re not playing nose, you’re not playing 0 (technique), which is right above the center. Now you’re getting a lot more one-on-ones.
“... And you’re telling me Bryan Bresee versus anybody one-on-one? I like Bryan Bresee.”
Bresee said he had some level of comfort with his new defensive coordinator before was even hired because he met with him prior to the 2023 draft when Staley was still the Los Angeles Chargers’ head coach.
He sees Staley as someone who understands how to put his best players in a position to succeed. While it has been difficult to get a true gauge on what that means this summer because neither the offensive nor defensive lines have played live practice snaps, Bresee can see a path for Staley’s play calls to be difficult for opposing offenses to contend with.
“It’s just so many different variables than what you’re used to, Bresee said. “There will be different opportunities for me to line up in different places. That just kind of comes with the scheme.”
And that might be a good thing for Bresee, specifically.
“I think this year he’ll have a lot more sacks, and this will be his year to make a lot of hay toward his legacy,” Jordan said.