There are 38 days left before the New Orleans Saints kick off their 2026 regular season, and the countdown has landed on a jersey number with a long, uneven run through franchise history.
The Saints will open on the road against the Detroit Lions on Sunday, Sept. 13, and right now reserve defensive back Jayden Price is the player wearing No. 38 as New Orleans moves into its second week of training camp. Price came up just short of making the 2025 active roster, but he’s back for another try in 2026 and has made an early push for a spot. If he earns one, he’ll become the 17th player to wear No. 38 in a regular-season game for the Saints.
The number’s history starts all the way back in 1967, when linebacker Phil Vandersea became the first Saint to wear it and played in eight games during the franchise’s inaugural season. The first offensive player to take No. 38 was running back Tony Baker, who wore it from 1968 to 1971. Baker appeared in 24 games over three seasons and had his best NFL season in 1969, when he made the Pro Bowl after rushing for 642 yards and finishing with 994 yards from scrimmage, both career highs.
Running back Bill Butler followed as the first player drafted by New Orleans to wear No. 38.
A fifth-round pick in 1972, Butler spent three seasons with the Saints, playing in 41 games, which is second most among all players who have worn the number for New Orleans. He totaled 1,009 yards and scored five times.
Then came George Rogers, the biggest No. 38 by far.
The Saints used the first overall pick in the 1981 NFL draft on the South Carolina Gamecocks star, and Rogers delivered immediately. He scored 13 touchdowns as a rookie, led the NFL with 1,674 rushing yards, and won 1981 NFL Rookie of the Year. He made the Pro Bowl again in the strike-shortened 1982 season and became the first back in franchise history to post multiple 1,000-yard rushing seasons when he ran for 1,144 yards in 1983.
His career later went off track because of a drug problem, and despite 914 rushing yards in 1984, he was traded to the Washington Redskins after that season. Rogers later won a Super Bowl XXII ring with Washington in 1987 before retiring.
Even so, his Saints legacy is still enormous: he remains fourth on the team’s all-time rushing list, his 1,674-yard rookie season is still the franchise record for a single season, and his 51 games are the most by any Saints player to wear No. 38.
He was inducted into the Saints Hall of Fame in 1992, becoming only the second running back to receive that honor at the time.
Since Rogers, the Saints have cycled through a long list of No. 38s. A dozen players have worn it over the last 36 years, and 10 of them kept it for a year or less.
Othello Henderson and Travaris Cadet were the only exceptions, with Henderson in the number for two years and nine games, and Cadet for two years and 17 games. Cadet spent four total seasons with the Saints and wore No. 38 during his second stint.
Usama Young also played four years in New Orleans, but he used the number only in his first season with the team in 2007.
More recently, Jeff Heath, Shemar Jean-Charles, and Millard Bradford each wore No. 38 for just one season before it landed with Price. Now the former UFL cornerback gets his second Saints opportunity after an excellent run with the Arlington Renegades and a strong start to training camp.
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