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NFL veteran nearly left Saints because of Todd Grantham

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NFL veteran Cam Jordan has been a constant in New Orleans since 2011, when the Saints picked the defensive end with the 24th overall pick in that year’s draft.

He’s made the Pro Bowl 8 times, been a 2nd-team All-Pro twice and was a first-team All-Pro in 2017. Jordan was also selected to the NFL’s 2010s All-Decade Team, so his impact with the franchise is unquestionably as large as he is at 6-foot-4, 287 pounds.

Jordan is now a wise veteran of the league at 36 years old, and he knows a lot about a lot of people who have come through New Orleans during his time. The former star at California knows that he almost walked away from the NFL or at least the Saints because of former defensive line coach Todd Grantham, who was with the Saints in 2023 and 2024. Grantham, who’s made several coaching stops in the SEC, just rubbed Jordan the wrong way, but Jordan was able to outlast Grantham and is entering his 15th season with the franchise.

“There was a game last year, that I walked off in this tunnel and I made a phone call. The next day, we released probably the worst D-line coach I’ve ever had,” Jordan said to Terron Armstead on a podcast earlier this week.

Here is the full clip of what Jordan told Armstead:

Terron Armstead asks Cam Jordan on how close he was to leaving New Orleans at any point in his career

“There was a game last year that I walked off into this tunnel, and I made a phone call, and then the next day we released probably the worst D-line coach I ever had.”

via… pic.twitter.com/rOoThPwhhc

— Saints Tape (@SaintsTape) August 8, 2025

Armstead was Jordan’s teammate in New Orleans from 2013-21, so Jordan felt comfortable enough in getting real about Grantham, who is now the defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State after those 2 seasons in New Orleans.

Grantham was the defensive coordinator at Florida from 2018-21 before becoming a defensive analyst at Alabama in 2022. He was also the defensive coordinator at Mississippi State in 2017 and held the same position at Georgia from 2010-13, so he’s found his way around the SEC quite well.

For Jordan, he was just glad Grantham found his way out of New Orleans before he had to quit football or at the very least leave the Saints.

Cory Nightingale

Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.