There are 31 days remaining until the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2025 regular season with a home game against the Arizona Cardinals. There have been 13 players to wear the No. 31 in Saints history. The latest is safety Jordan Howden, who’s entering his third year with New Orleans. Here’s a look at Howden’s career to date.

Name (age): Jordan Howden (25)

Hometown: Las Vegas, Nev.

Height, weight: 6-feet, 209 pounds

Relative Athletic Score: 8.88

Drafted: Round 5, 146 overall in 2023 (Saints)

2025 salary cap hit: $1,111,682

From Desert Pines High School in Las Vegas, Howden attended the University of Minnesota. He’d see relatively meaningful time as a freshman in 2018 and was a starter by 2019, intercepting one pass each year and second on the team in solo tackles as a sophomore. Howden was among the Golden Gophers tackle leaders for defensive backs the next two years. He’d record a career-best 58 total tackles to end his collegiate career in 2022, including 4 for loss.

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New Orleans selected Howden with an early fifth round pick in the 2023 NFL draft. He made some significant contributions as a rookie, appearing in 16 games with seven starts and playing 55% of the defensive snaps. Howden played fewer snaps on defense (47%) last season, but appeared in every game with four starts. For his career, he has 2 interceptions, a sack, one forced fumble, and has allowed 67.3% completion percentage when targeted in man coverage.

So far, Howden is having a strong training camp and is in the mix for more playing time at safety in 2025.The Saints added three safeties this offseason. Veteran newcomers Justin Reid and Julian Blackmon will likely be the starters. Howden will probably compete with rookie third round choice Jonas Sanker as the third safety. If Jordan Howden can sustain his strong start to camp, he could significantly improve the depth at the safety position despite the recent retirement of Tyrann Mathieu. If that happens, Howden could be talked about as the Saints most improved player after a rocky start to his career.

This article originally appeared on Saints Wire: Countdown to Kickoff: Jordan Howden is the Saints Player of Day 31