Hardly anyone took as much issue with Jeremy Fowler of ESPN’s edge rusher rankings as New Orleans Saints defender Cameron Jordan. But it wasn’t necessarily just Fowler’s selections and placements within the list that upset Jordan; Fowler surveyed NFL executives, coaches, scouts and players to create ESPN’s top-10 rankings for 11 separate positions. One of the positions among these was “edge rusher” which encompassed the traditional “defensive end” terminology.
The list featured, in order of ranking, Nick Bosa (San Francisco 49ers), Myles Garrett (Cleveland Browns), Micah Parsons (Dallas Cowboys), T.J. Watt (Pittsburgh Steelers), Haason Reddick (Philadelphia Eagles), Maxx Crosby (Las Vegas Raiders), Carolina Panthers (Brian Burns), Matthew Judon (New England Patriots), Von Miller (Buffalo Bills) and Joey Bosa (Los Angeles Chargers).
It was the term “edge rusher” itself that Jordan had words about, which prompted him to take to Twitter to air his grievances.
Jordan specifically pointed out that “true defensive ends” should be considered for their efforts on first, second, third, and fourth downs in defending the run as well as the pass, not just obvious passing situations on third downs.
The way Jordan sees it — and the way he plays the game — there is more to football than rushing the quarterback as they drop back to pass on third down. He feels disrespected by the emphasis on lighter sack artists when he and other big defensive ends are putting in work against the run, pointing to his peers like Brandon Graham (Philadelphia Eagles), Arik Armstead (San Francisco 49ers), and Demarcus Lawrence (Dallas Cowboys) as players who were overlooked on ESPN’s surveying. It’s a pass-first league, but that doesn’t mean the efforts of trench players like Jordan should be ignored.
Wonder if they have a complete True Defensive END ranking 😳 😂why is it edge rushers are taking away from true ends encompassed by the term edge?how many know what Stop the Run means 😂 me, B Graham, Nick, Arik Armstead, D-Law 😂😂😂 1st-4th downs not just the Pass. 👀👀👀👀 https://t.co/03cJft7nav
— Cam Jordan (@camjordan94) July 10, 2023
