Efforts to smooth over what is now a well-documented contract dispute between the Miami Dolphins and cornerback Xavien Howard have not gone well this offseason, for either party. Yes, Miami has maintained their leverage on the situation. But at the cost of Howard now making a very public, very pointed trade request. And Howard hasn’t won because, well, he hasn’t gotten the money he’s hoping to secure.
And now, thanks to a report from the Miami Herald, we know one of the solutions that Howard and his agent, David Canter, brought to the table amid their efforts to find some common ground and raise Howard’s 2021 compensation on the heels of a 10-interception season in 2020.
Howard reportedly asked the Dolphins to bring $4M in future salary from 2024 up to this season to help manufacture a higher salary in 2021 without changing the big picture financial details of Howard’s contract.
“The Dolphins have continually listened to salary proposals from Howard and Canter in meetings with general manager Chris Grier and even coach Brian Flores — so far without resolution during the offseason — so in the final meeting before the start of training camp the player suggested another solution that would merely move money on his current contract around rather than request a totally new deal.
Howard and Canter previously asked the Dolphins to move $4 million from Howard’s $11.65 million base salary scheduled for 2024 to this year.” — Armando Salguero, The Miami Herald
The Dolphins reportedly said no. But with the team’s manufactured cap room thanks to a “restructure” (read: pay cut) to LB Benardrick McKinney, the team does appear to have the wiggle room to make such a move and take it in stride — especially when you consider the team still has plenty of dead weight it can cut off the roster with fringe roster players like KR/WR Jakeem Grant and DB Clayton Fejedelem.
So while we don’t necessarily know what the team’s ideal outcome is and their motivation for holding so firm other than “the principle” of the matter, the Dolphins should be revisiting this proposal if they truly do intend to see Howard take the field for them in 2021. If the team quietly is looking to sell high on Howard, than holding firm on his contract makes since — they can let the next team to pay Howard sort the details of a paycheck.
But transitioning $4M in base salary from down the road and moving it to the here and now is a very, very easy solution. And it is one that can be easily digested by the Dolphins, too — but only if that is still on the table with Howard and Canter. Perhaps they, too, have simply had enough and the break is inevitable at this point.