Jordan Howden

Career StatsD+

Year	Team	GP	INT	PD	Tkl
Career		49	2	7	122
2025		16	0	0	29
2024		17	2	2	50
2023		16

Current Contract

Contract Value Index (CVI)

Net of age, position, and term, Jordan Howden's deal earns a C- Contract Value Index. He's being paid $1.04M AAV on a four-year rookie scale contract—reasonable on its face for a fifth-round pick in his third season—but the disconnect between his salary floor and his on-field production makes this a below-market value proposition. Howden logged 29 tackles across 16 games in the 2025 season, a statistical footprint that screams depth contributor rather than starter, and his performance grade reflects that absence of impact: there is no contract justification when a safety isn't generating meaningful defensive snaps. At 26 years old, he's in the window where the Saints need to see trajectory and role definition, yet the organization's recent secondary additions—signing Lorenzo Styles Jr. at safety and cutting Jeremiah McClendon—signal an active reshaping that has tightened his roster math considerably. The media framing is unambiguous: Howden is a cut candidate fighting for survival, an "opportunistic special-teams contributor" whose lone highlight (the 86-yard fumble-return TD against the Giants) proved his ceiling without proving his floor, and that gap is exactly why the CVI lands where it does. Unless he forces a defensive rethinking during camp or the team pivots its secondary strategy, the four-year term offers New Orleans an easy escape—rookie deals are year-to-year bargains in practice, and a sub-$1M AAV salary is the definition of jettison-able.

Contracts in the Same Value Band

Other same-position deals the Contract Value Index also places in the C band — a quick read on where Jordan's contract sits relative to comparable money.

Performance Analysis

Per-game impact for Jordan Howden pencils out to a D+ performance grade. The 26-year-old safety is firmly in replacement-level territory, a third-year player drafted in the fifth round in 2023 who has yet to establish himself as a meaningful contributor on the defensive side of the ball. His 2025 season numbers—29 tackles across 16 games—underscore a player who was present but largely inconsequential, averaging less than two tackles per game in a role that offered no standout statistical moment to point to beyond his opportunistic 86-yard fumble-return touchdown against the Giants. That special-teams flash is precisely the problem: it reinforces rather than contradicts the prevailing read on Howden as an occasional playmaker in transition opportunities rather than a safety capable of anchoring coverage or generating consistent pressure-side impact. At a career inflection point, he's a vulnerable depth piece caught in a roster squeeze—the Saints' recent defensive acquisitions and active offseason overhaul signal an organization actively evaluating whether Howden justifies his roster spot in a compressed 53-man environment. Unless training camp forces a dramatic recalibration of his defensive value, the D- sentiment grade accurately reflects his precarious standing: a player fighting to preserve his NFL future rather than competing for a defined role.

How Jordan Compares at the Position

Jordan Howden ranks 145th of 196 graded safeties by performance. That slots Jordan between Tanner Mccalister (D+) just ahead and Jack Henderson (D+) just behind.

Current Sentiment

Jordan Howden enters the 2026 offseason carrying a D- sentiment grade, and the public narrative around him is about as precarious as it gets for a player not yet generating significant attention — the kind of quiet that precedes a quiet cut. His 2025 campaign was widely framed as low-impact on defense, a brutal characterization for a safety in his third professional season who was drafted in the fifth round in 2023 and has yet to carve out a defined role beyond depth contributor. The lone moment that cut through the noise was an 86-yard fumble-return touchdown against the Giants — a genuinely electric play that nonetheless reinforces the prevailing read on him: a special-teams opportunist rather than a safety the Saints can build around. His 2025 season line of 29 tackles across 16 games tells a story of a player who was present but not consequential, which maps directly onto a D- performance grade that offers no counterargument to the cut-candidate framing. The Saints' recent offseason activity — adding Martin Emerson, DaShawn Jones, and several other defensive pieces to the roster — signals an organization actively reshaping its roster, which tightens the roster math and dims Howden's odds of surviving evaluation. A postgame interview presence after the Panthers game in Week 15 suggests he has some organizational goodwill, but goodwill alone rarely wins roster battles in a compressed 53-man cutdown. The bottom line is that Howden is a player fighting for his NFL career rather than his starting job, and unless he forces a rethinking of his defensive value in camp, the narrative is trending toward a clean exit from New Orleans.