X Dropping Hints Again?

Miami Dolphins CB Xavien Howard posted an interesting message on social media

Xavien Howard seems prepared to move on from the Miami Dolphins, and if that already wasn't clear enough, he reinforced that idea this week.

In an Instagram story, Howard posted a short video clip of musician Usher with a message that clearly would apply to him.

“Sometimes you got to leave," Usher says. "Sometimes you have to go away from home in order to be truly valued and appreciated and maybe find yourself. Sometimes in the wilderness you'll find something valuable and you come back and you can really enjoy it.”

This comes about a month after Howard told reporters on locker cleanout day — two days after the playoff loss at Kansas City — he was prepared to move on after eight seasons with the Dolphins.

“It’s up in the air," Howard said then. "At the end of the day it’s a business also. My eight years here, I’ve made the best of it. If this year is the last year and I have to say goodbye to some of the guys here I understand. It’s a part of the business. No matter where I go, I’m still going to do my thing.”

HOWARD'S COMPLICATED CONTRACT STATUS

Howard technically is under contract with the Dolphins for the next three years (plus one void year), but the reality is that he no longer has any guaranteed money coming his way and the team can save cap space by releasing him.

As has been well documented by now, the Dolphins could save $18.5 million in cap space by releasing him with a post-June 1 designation while having $7.4 million of dead money.

That's still a lot more palatable than Howard's current cap number of $25.9 million, particularly for a team dealing with such cap issues as the Dolphins.

The one negative about using the post-June 1 designation (each team can use it twice every year) is that the cap space can't be used until that date.

The Dolphins (almost assuredly) wouldn't release Howard without a post-June 1 designation because they would only save $2.8 million in cap space under that scenario with more than $23 million of dead money.

Maybe it was just coincidence, but Howard wasn't among the players new defensive coordinator Anthony Weaver listed as being excited to work with during his introductory press conference last week.

The writing indeed does seem to be on the wall when it comes to Howard, who currently stands as the longest-tenured player on the team.

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