Xavien Howard's Holdout

 Xavien Howard's holdout makes sense to me.

I wish that he were able to pursue it without holding out - but I also get that playing in the League is a job, and we all want compensated and appreciated for what we have done and what we are capable of in the future. Howard got robbed of the Defensive Player of the Year last year. I know he's thinking it. Well, of course I can't know that, but it's reasonable to assume it. Part of why he didn't get the Award is because he plays in Miami - a football town largely forgotten by Them - the Big Committees.

Whoever they are.

Howard has to know he's already had teams calling about him. How many of them are Contenders? I wonder whether he's wondering in his mind the same thing I am: Is Miami ever going to get out of the Just Missed the Wildcard loop they've got themselves in. If he were on a Playoff team, to say nothing of a Super Bowl Contender, his odds of making a bid for Canton might be a lot higher.

So he wants paid.

And I get it. Really. I've worked in situations where people have joined a team I'm on after me and were better compensated for lesser-quality production. I get it. I've walked from jobs I loved over it. So I don't find this surprising at all. I wish he were able to do it without the holdout. It would have been nice to read that he quietly got an extension or a raise, instead of reading about a holdout a few days after Jerome Baker is extended. According to him, they hadn't even talked about it yet.

Miami is ponderous, and Chris Grier is still a little bit of an unknown commodity. Brian Flores is still definitely an unknown as far as these type situations go. I feel like it's pretty evident that Minkah Fitzpatrick and Kenny Stills were guys who just did not get with Flores - potentially for distraction reasons - and they're gone. Will Xavien Howard wind up on another roster before season's start?

Coach's comments haven't led me to wonder that. His calling Xavien Howard's situation "unique" is not Mark Murphy of the Green Bay Packers calling Aaron Rodgers - in his round about and kind of backhanded and cowardly way - a "complicated" guy. What Murphy was trying to do was say that it was difficult to explain - because Rodgers is difficult to understand and to know and to describe. But what it sounds and looks and feels like is he's saying that everything about the situation with Rodgers is because Rodgers is complicated.

Howard's situation, I think, is unique.

Unique is an interesting word in this context, because I'm going to compare it back to Rodger's. I don't necessarily think it's about the money. Maybe it is with Rodgers. Maybe he is that guy who wants to make more than whoever The Guy is at the top of the pyramid. That's fine. I get it. I've chased that life. Maybe Xavien is too. But I think that both of them have unshakeable reasons for deserving it.

They were both the best players at their positions. Xavien Howard broke the 10-interception barrier. He's gone from a Very Good cornerback to legitimately but disputedly one of the top-3 corners in the League. The other corners you'll see on that list are Stephon Gilmore and Tre'Davious White - don't get me started on the latter; deep in the season last year, Cynthia Frelund of NFL Network tried to argue that White was more deserving of the DPOY Award because his team was worth without him on the field, making him the better player. I might have lost my top over that a little bit.

The point is that two of the League's top-10 corners are in the AFC East. Is Flores really going to let Howard walk - this season or next - when the corners they've drafted are nowhere near ready to compete at the same level? It seems foolish to me. The man was the best, you pay him like the best. Sure, it's a bummer that your very intelligent and forward-thinking contract worked out that you'd be paying the cheapest part of the best corner in the League's deal out during his best years-- But that's life. Sometimes you just have to keep paying for nice things.

Your house is never going to stop costing you money.

Pay the man. Figure it out. Harness the chip on his shoulder, and go win some games. He's tired of missing the Playoffs and flirting with forcing a trade? Solving that problem is going to be easier with him than without him.

And that's how I feel about that. Thanks for stopping by!

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