A lack of trade interest for Xavien Howard could help the Dolphins
By Brian Miller
If the Miami Dolphins want to trade Xavien Howard, they will have suitors but Howard may realize that he isn’t as valued as he believes.
In a perfect world, Howard’s unhappiness with his current contract should have teams lining up with offers for the Dolphins. In that same perfect world, the Dolphins would be looking at multiple offers and trying to guess which one is best but we don’t live in a perfect world and Xavien Howard may find out just how much of an imperfect world is out there for him.
Howard may think that he can hold the Dolphins hostage for a new contract but he can’t really, he isn’t in that position unless he is willing to sit out the entire 2021 season but if that were to happen, the daily fines and the lack of a tenured season would be prohibitive for Howard.
The problem that Howard is going to face is that the Dolphins have an elite player on their roster that will require teams to pay a potentially premium compensation package to the Dolphins. We are at a minimum talking about a 1st round pick just to stay on the phone. The Dolphins won’t get a Laremy Tunsil deal either, it will fall in the middle.
That team that offers a big package will then have to completely redo Howard’s contract to make him happy and that contract will start with more money than Byron Jones received last year making Howard the highest-paid player in the NFL.
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The combination of compensating both the Dolphins and Howard is going to turn off a lot of prospective teams and if the Dolphins give Howard permission to seek a trade, he may find that the number of teams that will be interested may not actually be as many as he would initially think.
Teams with the most draft capital and salary cap space are typically the teams that are not winning football games. They have extra draft capital because they dumpled quality players to build their roster. That’s what Miami did with Tunsil.
Howard’s best option is to stick out this year and play with the same determination he played with last year and then work with the Dolphins on a new deal next year when the cap will be higher and more money will be flexible. Maybe once he gets a better picture of the teams that are interested in him or not interested, he may see that as the better option.