Despite the history of the New Orleans Saints not being the best before 2006, there have still been some great players to grace the field in black and gold. Touchdown Wire’s Doug Farrar recently went through the best player at every jersey number, and two Saints made the list.
The first and most obvious candidate for the New Orleans Saints was Drew Brees for the No. 9 jersey. He’s not only the best to ever wear that jersey, he’s one of the best players of all time period. He got chosen over Sonny Jurgensen, Matthew Stafford, Steve Owen, Steve McNair, and Tony Romo. He holds the record for most consecutive games with a touchdown pass, highest completion percentage in a season, highest completion percentage in a game and is tied most touchdown passes in a game. Not to mention, he led New Orleans to their first and only Super Bowl (so far).
The only other Saints player to be named the best at their number was Willie Roaf for the No. 77. This was a more highly contested number with his competition being Andrew Whitworth, Jim Parker, Tyron Smith, Jim Tyrer, Lyle Alzado and Red Grange. Roaf was the correct choice for the number. He is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, made nine different All-Pro teams in 12 years of playing and made 11 Pro Bowls.
There were some Saints mentioned as honorable mentions, even though those two were the only ones to be given the crown. Rickey Jackson for No. 57, Sam Mills for No. 51, Pat Swilling for No. 56, Morten Andersen for No. 7 and Cameron Jordan for No. 94 all got honorable mentions.
