The Saints changed Cam Jordan's role after firing Dennis Allen. Here's why they did it.

The game after Dennis Allen was fired, Cam Jordan went from playing a career low in snaps to a snap percentage that tied his season high.

That’s not an accident.

Interim coach Darren Rizzi said there was a “conscious decision” to get Jordan more involved in last weekend’s win over the Atlanta Falcons. After playing just 10 snaps in New Orleans’ loss to the Carolina Panthers, Jordan logged 42 snaps — good for 54% of the defense’s snaps — against the Falcons. And Jordan rewarded the Saints for the uptick in playing time by recording his first sack of the season.

“It’s great when you catch the ebb and flow of a game,” Jordan said. “You can see the rate of production increase, which is just crazy how that works.”

The last part of Jordan’s sentence couldn’t have been said with more sarcasm.

Publicly, Jordan has said all of the right things about his reduced role this season. And he maintained that stance this week when asked whether he expects to see his playing time increase after his Atlanta performance. Jordan said he expects the Saints to win more, adding that his snaps weren’t up to him.

“Of course I can always help out more — I feel like my talent speaks for itself,” Jordan said. “Whether you use me or not, I’m a part of this football team and I want this football team to win. It’s about how much effort I give.”

Rizzi downplayed the idea that Jordan’s role could be expanded the rest of the season. The interim coach said every game plan is different. Rizzi said the Falcons game was “very conducive to Cam,” perhaps because Atlanta quarterback Kirk Cousins is far less mobile than Carolina quarterback Bryce Young.

But the differences in speed don’t tell the whole story. When the Saints first played the Falcons this season, Jordan logged only 19 (34%) of the defensive snaps. Jordan’s role was clearly diminished and during the last two games under Allen, he played just 29% and 19% of the snaps.

Rizzi said he felt like the Saints could "get more out" of Jordan, hence the decision to increase his role last weekend. For the rest of the season, the Saints will search for a happy medium. 

“Listen, that may fluctuate week to week,” Rizzi said. “Probably, definitely want to get him more than 10 (snaps), like he had the week before. Somewhere in the 40, 44 may be his max, so we kind of maxed him out (against the Falcons). But I thought he played really well and made a couple of big plays in the game.”

Rizzi said he believes Jordan played his best of the season last weekend — even beyond the fact he recorded a sack. He said Jordan played well consistently across the 42 snaps, rather than make a couple of splash plays. According to Next Gen Stats, Jordan got off the snap in an average of just 0.9 seconds — his second-fastest rate of the season.

Despite the encouraging signs from Jordan, the Saints still will deploy a pass-rush rotation that also involves Chase Young, Carl Granderson and Payton Turner. Those three have had more production than Jordan, and so it shouldn’t be a surprise that the New Orleans coaching staff wants to get them involved.

But even at 35, Jordan might not be totally done yet. And the Saints are committed to giving him the chance to produce.

“What’s important to me is winning, as I’ve said this whole entire season,” Jordan said. “All I care about is winning. Now that we’re here, we’ve got to find a way to start stacking those.”