Henry Jordan is the easy answer at No. 74 for the Green Bay Packers, and the case for him is built on the kind of résumé that belongs in a different tier entirely. He was one of the defensive pillars of the Vince Lombardi era, a five-time NFL champion with Green Bay and a five-time First-Team All-Pro selection.
Jordan’s path to Green Bay started with a decorated college career at Virginia. In 1956, he was an All-ACC selection, and he also finished as the runner-up in the heavyweight division of the 1957 NCAA Wrestling championships. The Cleveland Browns picked him in the fifth round of the 1957 NFL Draft with the 52nd overall selection, and he played every game for them in both 1957 and 1958 without starting any.
Lombardi saw more than that stat line suggested. Before his first season as Packers head coach in 1959, he brought Jordan in through a trade, sending a fourth-round draft pick to Cleveland. That move turned into one of the smartest calls of Lombardi’s early years in Green Bay.
Jordan started all 12 games in his first season with the Packers, then took another step in 1960. He made his first Pro Bowl, earned First-Team All-Pro honors, and helped Green Bay reach the NFL Championship Game, where the Packers fell to the Philadelphia Eagles.
From there, the accolades kept piling up. Over the seven-year span from 1961 to 1967, Jordan added three more Pro Bowl nods, four more First-Team All-Pro selections, and one Second-Team All-Pro honor.
His impact showed up when the games mattered most. Green Bay won five NFL Championships during that stretch, including the two that sent the Packers to the first two Super Bowls. Jordan was a force in the first of those, then called the AFL-NFL World Championship Game, when he recorded 1.5 sacks on Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Len Dawson and delivered the hit that helped set up Willie Wood’s momentum-shifting interception.
He wasn’t as busy on the stat sheet in Super Bowl 2 against the Oakland Raiders, finishing with two tackles, but his earlier work had already helped get Green Bay there. In the 1967 Divisional Round, the Packers were underdogs against the Los Angeles Rams, and Jordan came up huge against future Hall of Fame guard Tom Mack. He piled up 3.5 sacks on Roman Gabriel in a 28-7 upset.
Jordan’s Packers career ended after an injury-riddled 1969 season. He played 149 total games for Green Bay across the regular season and postseason, and he started every one of them.
He entered the Packers Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1995. Jordan died of a heart attack in 1977 at age 42, making that second honor posthumous.
There are other worthy names tied to No. 74.
Aaron Kampman played 118 total games for Green Bay from 2002 to 2009 and earned two Pro Bowl selections plus two Second-Team All-Pro nods. Roger Zatkoff also made a strong case, playing four seasons from 1953 to 1956 while collecting three Pro Bowl selections, one First-Team All-Pro nod, and one Second-Team selection.
But at No. 74, nobody tops Henry Jordan.
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Cisse was back for a full practice and is expected to have a significant role on Sunday after starting last game and playing 49 defensive snaps before leaving. For Green Bay, the encouraging part is not just that he seems ready to go, but that the rookie who was already trusted in the starting lineup appears set to resume that responsibility without any lingering concern. [Read more 🡒]