'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,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'%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
Over the past 15 years, the New Orleans Saints have been one of the best teams in the NFL.
Under the guidance of head coach Sean Payton, the New Orleans Saints have won a Super Bowl and seven NFC South Division titles. It has been the greatest period in the history of the franchise.
Things weren't always so simple for fans in the Big Easy, though; the New Orleans Saints, once considered the worst team in football, didn't make the playoffs in twenty years. In fact, from their inception in 1967, it took the New Orleans Saints twenty years to even post a winning-season!
Five best players to have represented the New Orleans Saints:
Throughout the ups and the downs in New Orleans' football history, the city sure has had its fair share of great players. Let's take a look at five of the best of them to have represented the New Orleans Saints.
#5 Jahri Evans, OG (2006 - 2016)
Left guard Jahri Evans was inducted into the New Orleans Saints Hall of Fame in 2020.
The New Orleans Saints took Pennsylvania’s Bloomburg University product off the board in the fourth round of the 2006 NFL Draft. Evans would go on to represent the Saints in six Pro Bowls (4x All-Pro) and was named in the NFL's All-Decade Team (2010-2020). He was also a part of the New Orleans Saints team that won the Super Bowl in 2010.
As a player, Evans was big and athletic. He offered Drew Brees incredible pass protection and was a real force in run-blocking plays for over a decade.
The Saints have had some decent OGs on their roster since then. But none have been as dominant as Jahri Evans, one of the best to ever do it.
#4 Archie Manning, QB (1971 - 1982)
As already mentioned, the New Orleans Saints struggled for wins during the franchise's formative years; they didn't make the playoffs for a long time.
During those years in the wilderness, Archie Manning, father of Super Bowl-winning QB brothers, Peyton and Eli Manning, did just about everything he could to change the fortunes of fans down in the Bayou.
The very embodiment of the adage, 'you need more than a brilliant QB to win a Super Bowl,' Archie Manning's knack for incredible quarterback play in a poor New Orleans team even saw him voted the 1978 NFC Offensive Player of the Year.
When you factor in that Manning finished his career throwing for 21,734 yards, 115 touchdowns and 156 interceptions to go along with a bleak-looking 35-91-3 record, that award seems almost impossible, an incredible achievement.
Archie Manning might not have won any team trophies or even made the playoffs with the New Orleans Saints. But he couldn't have tried any harder to stop the rut.
The QB gave everything on the field; he was always desperate to make things happen; he was sacked almost 400 times in his career, playing behind a weak offensive line. But Archie Manning never surrendered, and that's why he makes the list.
Archie Manning was a bright light in a dark place, a New Orleans Saint in every sense of the word.
#3 Willie Roaf, OT (1993-2001)
In 2012, Willie 'Nasty' Roaf's bust was cast and placed in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, cementing the former Saint as one of the best offensive linemen in NFL history.
The New Orleans Saints selected Roaf with their no. 8 pick at the 1993 NFL Draft. It was a move that would pay dividends:
Roaf was an elite-level blocker who gave the New Orleans Saints genuine consistency on the left side of the line for nine years. The Saints might not have been great during the mid-90s, but like Manning, Roaf usually was.
The Louisiana Tech product went on to make the Pro Bowl 11x and also made the NFL's 1990-2000 All-Decade team.
#2 Rickey Jackson, LB (1981–1993)
Before the arrival of Sean Payton, in the eyes of most fans, Rickey Jackson was the premiere talent to ever suit up at the Super Dome. He was idolized in the Bayou.
The University of Pittsburgh product still holds New Orleans' records for sacks (115), forced fumbles (38) and fumbles recovered in defense (27); (Brees has 28 in offense). Jackson was named to the Pro Bowl six times and has since been inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame, the first Saints player to ever do so.
Jackson played the game with real energy and was a big hitter in defense. Together with other fearsome linebackers, Sam Mills and Vaughan Johnson, he formed the backbone of the unit destined to become the Dome Patrol, Jim Mora's famed linebacker corps of the 1980s and early 1990s.
Under the tutorage of defensive coordinator Steve Sidwell, Dome Patrol was to form the key component in one of the most formidable 3-4 defenses in NFL history, and Jackson used to thrive in it.
#1 Drew Brees, QB (2006-2020)
No surprises here. The now former-New Orleans Saints franchise quarterback, Drew Brees, has to be the Saints' number one best player of all time.
I say that based on his 20-year NFL career, one Super Bowl win, 80,358-yard passing (1st all time), 571 TD passes (second all time) and a highlight reel of incredible passes that aspiring QBs will analyze for years.
Drew Brees may have retired as a bone-certified first-ballot Hall-of-Famer and a New Orleans' legend of all time, but number nine has also always been much more than just a great football player.
In the wake of the havoc Hurricane Katrina wreaked across New Orleans, Brees' extensive efforts to help rebuild homes and communities saw him selected as a co-recipient of the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award. Brees would share the award with LaDanian Tomlinson, a prestigious recognition of both players' voluntary and charity work.
A fine quarterback and an outstanding man, Drew Brees is arguably the greatest Saints player of all time.
