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Xavien Howard's story has been one of the tent-pole pieces of the offseason and it is leaking into the preseason. For those just tuning in, Howard spent the last bit of the offseason holding out over a contract issue. He's unhappy because he isn't making enough money. One of his main reasons is that he's only the second-highest-paid cornerback on the team.
He showed up to camp but ultimately requested a trade. However, almost immediately following the news, he tweaked his ankle and has not practiced since. Here's why the Miami Dolphins do not want to trade Howard.
Why the Dolphins don't want to trade Xavien Howard
Production
First and foremost, the Dolphins do not want to trade Xavien Howard because they don't want to lose his boost for the secondary. According to a report from Next-Gen Stats, Xavien Howard has been dominant since 2017. Since 2017, Howard has only allowed a passer rating of 55.3 when targeted. He has 21 interceptions and has a ball hawk rate of 18.9 percent.
Last season, Howard had ten interceptions. After looking at what he's done, it is pretty obvious why the Dolphins don't want to trade one of the best cornerbacks in the league right now.
They don't need to trade Howard
While Howard's requests and holdouts are not to be completely ignored, there is no reason for the Dolphins to trade Howard. He's still under contract and has no leverage to pressure the Miami Dolphins into anything. At the same time, his leverage is shrinking as he gets closer to the 30-year old mark. The Dolphins have all of the power in this situation.
Basically, if the Dolphins want to keep Howard, they can keep him. Also, with Howard showing up to practice, there is almost no incentive to move the cornerback.
Week One is still far away
The Dolphins may feel more incentivized to move Howard during the regular season. However, right now, there is still a solid month to work out some sort of compromise to keep him around.
Even if the Dolphins wanted to trade him, the timing is not right. The Dolphins would be smart to wait for a top cornerback to go down with an injury and sell Howard for more than he's worth to a desperate team.
At the end of the day, the timing is not right and the Dolphins have no reason to make any moves other than a phone call to Howard to smooth things over.
