OTA’s Had Xavien Howard Locking Down His Spot

Howard flashed locking down ability in 2016

When Xavien Howard gave his first interview as a rookie, he seemed like a nice, shy kid with a pensive, almost nervous look. He didn’t project the uber-confident attitude you’d expect from a cornerback.

The cliche goes, never judge a book by its cover.

Even though somewhat marred by injuries, flashes of excellent play, along with tough hits showed that he was anything but soft.

So the cliche won again.

OTA’s have continued this trend–at least so far as the coverage skills.

It doesn’t take a wizard of football odds to know that the NFL is now a passing league and that the best way to defend against the pass is to have an unrelenting pass rush and Lockdown Cornerbacks that can shut down a team’s receiving yards.

It’s been a long time since the stud Cornerback tandem of Sam Madison and Patrick Surtain dominated in Aqua (1998 to 2004).

While last year’s CB’s weren’t near that level, the Dolphins did get decent play from their Corners. So the hope of fans and staff is that they should be even better in 2017.

But just to let you know, Byron Maxwell statistically gave up the least yardage per game of any AFC CB. So this isn’t pie in the sky talk.

Yet, even if Maxwell continues, the key to Miami’s success at cornerback this year–and long term–is going to depend on second-year player Howard.

Howard was drafted in the second round of the 2016 draft but battled knee injuries before and during the season. As a result, he only got a limited amount of playing time. The exciting part is when he did play, he earned a starting spot and showed potential.

Miami runs Zone mostly, so a Lockdown corner means locking down his zone.

Howard showed that he’s a feisty corner that’s not afraid to get physical with opposing receivers. He has the speed and size to cover even the best in the league.

Many fans and reporters are already stating that he’s come out on the right foot with superb OTA’s.

Yes, this is only OTA’s: There is no contact or pads. However, it’s very encouraging that he appears to be ready to vie for the best corner on the team. Doing an excellent job by covering the likes of Landry, Stills, and Parker isn’t an easy assignment even in practice.

Also, one of the most translatable aspects of practice to game time is coverage. Actually, it’s harder, because QB’s have no fear of getting light up.

Going up against our top-quality wide receivers, each and every day is definitely a big benefit and fast way for him to improve. Yet, that buzz word again rears its ugly head: can he can stay healthy.

Howard has already flashed his potential, but potential means nothing if it’s stuck on the sideline.

If healthy, will Howard be a shutdown corner this season? Probably not. He’s still very inexperienced in terms of the NFL with only 7 games under his belt. I’m also concerned about his deep-ball skills, because he had trouble in college with his deep game, and those issues continued in the pros. However, I believe that as the year progresses, he’s going to get beat less and less, because a lot of his issues in the long game are technical. So as long as he can stay healthy (prayers with fingers crossed, please), and with a full year under his belt, he has a real shot to be a true lockdown corner in 2018… or at least pretty darn good.

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