What the Xavien Howard situation means for the Miami Dolphins

All is not lost despite the fact that Xavien Howard feels disrespected by the Miami Dolphins. In fact, it’s far from being lost and Howard could still be in the plans.

By now, you know, Xavien Howard wants the Dolphins to trade him. We expected that, the Dolphins probably expected that. He took to social media on Tuesday and said that he and his agent requested that some money be shifted into guarantees and that the Dolphins refused. Later we learned that he wanted an additional $4 million moved to this year’s salary. That may not seem like a lot until you look at his current contract that will pay him $13 million this year.

Howard wants out but the Dolphins still hold the cards. They can force him to stay on the roster or Howard can walk away and then get fined. Howad could fake an injury that would devalue his worth to the Dolphins and likely hurt his future earnings. Or he could simply play disgruntled and hope that he can show that last season wasn’t a fluke.

The Dolphins are holding firm, for now. Brian Flores wants Howard on the team but also has said that this a different issue given he is only two years into a five year deal.

Howard has said that he will show up only so he doesn’t get fined and will act professional but taking to social media to call out your team publicly is far from professional. There is a lot of work to be done and the Dolphins do not need to move quickly.

Chris Grier has to be patient here. A trade may very well be the only option but Miami didn’t get enough for Minkah Fitzpatrick or Jarvis Landry but Howard is different and there are at least three teams that are interested in acquiring him.

Miami has to make sure they get value for him and while the fan base is still split, many are starting to slide towards the favor of the team. Will this get uglier? It might but there isn’t much more Howard can do in this case unless he wants out so bad that he will risk his own future earnings by “injury”.  Some have pointed that Jalen Ramsey’s “injury” didn’t hurt his value but Ramsey didn’t have the actual injury history that Howard has.