Dolphins Signing Howard to New Contract
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The Miami Dolphins has solved the Xavien Howard contract situation and he'll remain with the only team for which he's played in the NFL.
The Dolphins agreed to a new five-year contract with Howard, according to agent David Canter, with multiple reports indicating he'll get more than $50 million in new money.
The new contract will give Howard the most guaranteed money ever for a cornerback. Howard's contract runs through 2026 and is fully guaranteed in 2022 and 2023.
Howard had three years left on his contract worth a shade over $39 million, but the team had agreed to revisit his contract as part of a restructure the Dolphins did in early August last year.
That came after Howard took to Instagram to request a trade over displeasure about his contract — a five-year extension he had signed in May 2019.
Howard's future with the Dolphins became cloudy after his trade request, even after the his contract was restructured last summer because it didn't involve a long-term solution, which we now have.
"When Xavien hired us last January, we knew what was being asked of us had never been done," Canter said in a Twitter post Saturday morning. "To be able to get the Dolphins to go against conventional wisdom and add value to a deal with 4 seasons remaining was unheard of itself. That the organization allowed us to reconstruct his entire contract and add record shattering money to the ideal is beyond our imagination."
Howard's new contract in the big picture
The new contract continues an offseason devoted to keeping intact a defense that was the driving force behind the seven-game winning streak that helped the Dolphins rebound from a 1-7 start to finish 9-8.
Given the win-now moves of signing Terron Armstead as a free agent and trading for wide receiver Tyreek Hill, keeping Howard seemed like the only logical option for the Dolphins as opposed to trading him because there can be no arguing about the fact that Howard is the team's best player.
Howard earned Pro Bowl invitations each of the past two seasons (as well as 2018) and recorded 15 interceptions over that span, 10 in 2020 and five in 2021.
He scored twice last season, on a fumble return in the Thursday night home victory against the Baltimore Ravens and on a pick-six in the season finale against the New England Patriots.
Howard's new contract came after the team re-signed Emmanuel Ogbah, Elandon Roberts, Brennan Scarlett, Duke Riley, Sam Eguavoen and Sheldrick Redwine, along with extending a second-round qualifying offer to RFA Nik Needham to keep the right to match any offer sheet he might receive.
But Howard was the one player the Dolphins couldn't lose on defense because of his superb cover skills and playmaking ability.
He'll be heading into his seventh NFL season in 2022 after first arriving as a second-round pick out of Baylor in 2016, Chris Grier's first year as general manager.
Grier expressed confidence this week at the annual meetings in Palm Beach that a deal would be worked out with Canter.
"We don’t negotiate through the press, but hopefully we’ll get to a resolution sooner than later," Grier said. "Xavien has done a lot of good things here for this organization. I’ve known him for years. I was here when we drafted him. He was my second draft pick here (after 2016 first-round pick Laremy Tunsil). I’m looking forward to him being here and helping us win.”
