According to Ian Rapoport, Ravens GM Eric DeCosta was a busy man at last week’s trade deadline, including making a run at dealing for Dolphins CB Xavien Howard.
Rapoport says a deal couldn’t be reached because the Dolphins wanted at least a first-round pick for Howard. To pay that much, the Ravens would have needed Miami to eat a chunk of what remained of Howard’s $13.75 million base salary.
Though both sides made legitimate efforts in negotiations, Rapoport says they couldn’t hash a deal out.
He adds DeCosta explored a number of other trades to potentially add reinforcements to an injury-riddled Baltimore roster but nothing ended up working out.
After Howard expressed displeasure with his contract this past offseason, Miami reworked his deal to give him a slight raise with promises to potentially revisit it in 2022.
Howard, 28, is a former second-round pick of the Dolphins back in 2016. He was in the final year of his four-year, $6,128,038 rookie deal and set to make a base salary of $1,285,641 for the 2019 season when he agreed to a five-year, $76.5 million extension that included $46 million guaranteed with Miami.
Howard is set to make base salaries of $12.075 and $12.975 million over the next two seasons.
In 2021, Howard has appeared in seven games for the Dolphins and recorded 23 total tackles, one forced fumble, one recovery, two interceptions and 10 pass defenses. Pro Football Focus had him rated as the No. 75 corner out of 116 qualifying players.
We’ll have more on Howard as the news is available.
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