Dolphins CB Xavien Howard requests to be traded

Xavien Howard showed up for work Tuesday morning strictly to avoid the NFL’s $50,000 a day fine players are now subjected to for holding out.

But that doesn’t mean his issues with the Miami Dolphins are over.

“I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” Howard wrote in a statement on social media Tuesday night about his contract dispute, which motivated him to skip the offseason program and the mandatory minicamp in June.

His absence during the offseason workouts led to a loss of over $119,000 for forfeiting his $25,000 workout bonus, and being fined $94,000 by the team for missing the mandatory practices.

But the message seems to be more important than the money to Howard, a Defensive Player of the Year candidate last season after he pulled down a leagueleading 10 interceptions.

“I want to make it clear I’m not happy, and have requested a trade,” Howard told the South Florida Sun Sentinel Tuesday.

At the root of Howard’s issue is the sixyear, $77.2 million extension he signed in 2019, which included the final year of his rookie deal.

At the time Howard signed the contract he was one of the five highest-paid cornerbacks in the NFL, pulling in $12.8 million a season.

But since he signed the contract in 2018, five cornerbacks have gotten bigger, more substantial deals, and one of them happens to be Howard’s teammate, cornerback Byron Jones, who the Dolphins signed to a five-year deal worth $82.5 million last offseason.

Jones, who was guaranteed $46 million by the Dolphins, will earn $16 million more than Howard over the 2020 and 2021 seasons.