That sound you hear is the collective exhale of Miami Dolphins fans just about everywhere as the news has been broke that All-Pro cornerback Xavien Howard will not be going anywhere after all. Howard started training camp off with a bang with the insistence of getting a trade; citing disappointment in how the Dolphins have handled his displeasure in his current deal. Yet the Dolphins, from the very beginning, made it abundantly clear that trading for Howard would require a king’s ransom and that the team wasn’t overly interested in moving on from their All-Pro cornerback.
And now, thanks to a report from Mike Garafolo, it seems as though the Dolphins will get their wish. And Howard, to a certain extent, will get his — the two sides have finally agreed upon a contract restructure to offer Howard the chance to compensate himself with his play on the field and Miami gets their top talent back on the field and on-board with the direction of the team.
The #Dolphins have agreed to restructure CB Xavien Howard’s contract, source says. The situation has been resolved. He’s staying in Miami.
It’s believed to be the first time in NFL history a player with four years left on his deal has received added money and guarantees.
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) August 8, 2021
As Garafolo points out, this is a fairly unprecedented turn of events — as no contract is believed to have been negotiated with four years remaining to add more money and guarantees. But Howard is coming off of a splendid season in Miami and the Dolphins have been sorely missing him in camp as the team has watched Howard sit with a reported “minor” ankle injury. Howard was back in action with the team on Saturday for practice and perhaps that provided the Dolphins with the good faith measure necessary to push the deal across the finish line.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Dolphins are giving Howard $4.5M in incentives for the 2021 season.
What did Xavien Howard get? $1M Pro Bowl incentive. $3.5M in additional incentives. Rescinding all minicamp fines. The max for 2021 is $16,285,294 https://t.co/ZOjYPeHfJj
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 8, 2021
Additionally, the Dolphins are giving Howard $500k per game in roster bonuses and the full amount of the 2022 salary (nearly $13M) is injury guaranteed and will be fully guaranteed on the first day of the league calendar year.
For 2022, Xavien Howard gets $500K in per-game roster bonuses and $100K in workout bonuses move to base salary and guaranteed. The full amount for 2022 of $12.975M is injury guaranteed with conversion to fully guaranteed the first day of league year. https://t.co/ZOjYPeHfJj
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) August 8, 2021
As the dust settles, we’ll have more on how exactly this impacts the Dolphins’ future spending power and cap flexibility — but for now the team can rest easy knowing that Howard is on-board for the year ahead and will be getting paid his worth in the foreseeable future.