Jordan
Howden.
Jordan
Howden.
Minnesota· 6'0"· 203 lb· 4.49s 40
"A five-year starter who never busts a coverage and never wins a game by himself, which is precisely the profile that survives on Day 3 and outlasts flashier picks."Pre-draft read
Howden is a two-high safety who wins with processing rather than explosion. Minnesota used him as the deep-half defender and communicator in a zone-match system, and his best reps come with the picture in front of him: he reads route distribution, throttles into the correct landmark and drives on the throw with clean angles.
He is a willing but not violent run defender, filling the alley under control and tackling with technique instead of thump. Straight-line speed is real — a 4.49 forty — but it plays as functional range, not erasure. The separator is dependability: a defensive back who knows every job in the secondary and lets a coordinator disguise without breaking the call.
Zone-match two-high defense (Quarters/Cover-6) that rotates late and asks the safeties to carry the communication load.
Year 1: third safety in five- and six-DB packages plus core special teams. Ceiling: full-time starting free safety in a split-safety scheme that keeps him facing the ball.
A single-high Cover-1 defense that leaves him alone over the top on field-side verticals, or a scheme that walks him down to cover move tight ends man-to-man.
He is a coverage organizer first. The more pre-snap responsibility a defense hands him, the better the tape looks.
Jordan Howden Highlights - Welcome to the New Orleans Saints
Draft-week reel covering his deep-half reads, alley tackling and slot reps at Minnesota.
Minnesota DB Jordan Howden INT vs. Purdue
Interception off a zone read of the quarterback, the signature play type in his 2022 season.
Jordan Howden (DB | New Orleans Saints) Highlights Reaction
Film-review breakdown of his coverage processing and run fits from a scouting perspective.
Howden arrived in the 2023 class as a fifth-year Minnesota starter with 58 games of experience and reps at deep safety, in the box and over the slot. P.J. Fleck's staff trusted him with the green dot in the secondary, and that identity — communicator, alignment fixer, no-mistakes player — was the through line on tape.
Production was steady rather than loud: 240 tackles, 5.5 tackles for loss and four interceptions across five seasons, capped by a senior year with 58 stops, two picks and five breakups while allowing one of the lowest target passer ratings on the roster. The flags were about ceiling, not floor. He is not a downhill enforcer, he does not consistently finish at the catch point, and he needs the play in front of him to be at his best.
The board pegged him as a Day 3 defensive back with starter reps in his future but no clear standout trait — the kind of safety who gets drafted because he plays four phases and never busts a coverage. New Orleans took him at 146 to be exactly that: a sub-package and special teams body who could grow into the third safety in a two-high defense.
- 01
Processing
Reads route distribution from depth and reacts to the quarterback's eyes, arriving at the throwing window without needing a head start.
- 02
Communication
Ran the back end at Minnesota, aligning the secondary and handling checks, which shortens the learning curve in any coverage system.
- 03
Versatility
Real snaps at deep half, in the box and over the slot across five seasons, giving a coordinator a plug-and-play piece for sub-packages.
- 04
Tackling technique
Breaks down in the alley and wraps low rather than launching, which keeps his miss rate down in open-field situations.
- 05
Timed speed
A 4.49 forty and a 119-inch broad jump confirm the range shows up on tape when he has to run the deep third out of a rotation.
- 01
Play strength
Gets moved by tight ends and pulling linemen at the point of attack, and he lacks the pop to knock a ball carrier backward in the hole.
- 02
Ball skills
Only four college interceptions and inconsistent hands at the contact point mean he plays the receiver more often than he plays the ball.
- 03
Man coverage
Tightness in the hips shows on sudden route breaks, so he is exposed when asked to travel with slot receivers in isolation.
- 04
Impact plays
Rarely creates the splash — the tape is a long list of correct reps without the takeaway or blow-up that changes a possession.
— — — positional median (p50)
- 40 yd
- 4.49sp50
- Vertical
- 33.5inp50
- Broad jump
- 119inp50
- Three-cone
- —s
- Shuttle
- —s
- Bench
- 14repp50
| Yr | Team | G | Tkl | Sk | Int | PD | FF |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Minnesota | 13 | 45 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 |
| 2019 | Minnesota | 13 | 57 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 |
| 2020 | Minnesota | 7 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 2021 | Minnesota | 12 | 43 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| 2022 | Minnesota | 13 | 58 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
| Career | — | 58 | 240 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 0 |
2020-2022 verified against cfbstats.com game logs; 2018-2019 from CFBD and confirmed by contemporaneous scouting reports. Season sums match career totals (240 tackles, 5.5 TFL, 4 INT, 20 PBU in 58 games). Forced/recovered fumbles not listed by source and are left unset rather than zero-filled.
A dash means the figure is not published by a source we trust — never a zero we invented.
Range-and-angles deep safety profile, though Howden's version comes without the elite ball production.
Instinct-and-communication safety who turned processing into a decade of two-high starting reps.
Day 3 Saints safety whose special teams value never translated into a defensive role.
Everything above is the pre-draft evaluation. This section is what actually happened — updated year over year.
New Orleans got a professional. Howden played all 16 available games as a rookie in 2023, mixing sub-package safety work with heavy special teams duty and finishing with 42 tackles, a sack and five pass breakups — an unusually productive Day 3 first year. In 2024 he appeared in all 17 games, logged 44 tackles and two interceptions, and became the Saints' preferred third safety when they went to five and six defensive backs. In 2025 the counting numbers slid to 28 tackles in 16 games with two starts, but the tape was his best: a 73.2 PFF defensive grade with an 85.5 run-defense mark, plus an 86-yard fumble return touchdown against the Giants. He is still in New Orleans entering 2026 with 49 games, 13 starts and 115 tackles on his ledger.
In hindsight this is exactly what a fifth-round safety should look like. Nobody expected a Pro Bowl arc and nobody got a bust: the traits that made him a Day 3 pick — processing, communication, positional flexibility — are the ones that keep a backup safety employed for three-plus years. The evaluation's one miss was pessimism about impact. Howden has not become a takeaway machine, but the run-defense grade suggests the play-strength concern was overstated for the role he was actually asked to fill.