New Orleans Saints: Most important players against the Houston Texans

1. Cameron Jordan

Cameron Jordan is one of the best edge-rushers in the NFL and we are going to see that on full display in Week 1. If Jordan is as good as he could be, then the defense as a whole is going to be firing on all cylinders and give an all-around better performance.

If Jordan is struggling then it is going to have a ripple effect on the rest of the defense that could lead to that high-scoring shootout that we alluded to earlier.

The narrative here obviously is that Jordan is going to need to get a lot of pressure on DeShaun Watson in order to make the young quarterback struggle. Jordan, as an edge rusher, is also going to be important as he can make sure that Watson does not escape the pocket when it starts to collapse.

Watson is a great quarterback but as the mantra goes, even the best quarterback isn’t that great when he is on his butt on the turf. Hitting Watson is not only going to have an impact on those particular plays but Watson’s game as a whole as he is going to have the thought of Jordan barrelling down at him at every turn.

Without even looking at the score, if you look at the box score and see a strong game from Jordan then the Saints probably won. If you see nothing, then it was a high-scoring battle that went either way.