Miami Extends Xavien Howard

[EDGECRUSHER]

Deal replaces the current one and I think he gets 5 years at $25 Million a year, with all of it being guaranteed but I'm not sure if the site I got this from got the math right. Either way, X is signed through his Age 32 season and I hope this keeps building team unity, showing guys we want to take care of our own. That was definitely missing under Flores.

[fyo]

The math is weird as presented by pretty much every outlet. Let's unpack it.

It's a 2 year $50 million extension (new money) of his existing deal, which had $39 million and 3 years remaining. The total deal now is thus 5 years and right around $90 million. That's the 4th highest per year of any cornerback in the league at $18 million a year. The reported $25 million a year is only the new money aspect and doesn't correspond to anything X will actually get.

The deal also slightly restructured X's contract numbers for the coming years (so not purely an extension). The next 3 years will see him earn $55 million (again right around $18 million a year). That makes the deal look pretty evenly weighted, although we don't have the exact numbers for each year yet.

Howard wanted to get more then the $82 million over 5 years that Byron Jones got. He has that now with $90 million over 5 years.

The major unknown at this time is the guaranteed portion. Several outlets (like SI.com) are saying he will get "the most guaranteed money of any cornerback ever", but without saying how much and without detailing how exactly the money is guaranteed (not all guaranteed money is *actually* guaranteed).

The record for fully guaranteed money for a cornerback is, as far as I could find out by looking at contacts at overthecap, right around $44 million, so figure "worst vary' X has the first 3 years, $55 million guaranteed.

[fyo]

In terms of cap hit, we don't have enough information yet. He was due to count $16 million against the cap for the 2022 season. I would expect that to go down a bit by giving him some of the first 3 years of money as a signing bonus (which is then spread across all 5 years of the contract for salary cap purposes). In theory the deal could be structured to save a much as $10 million on the cap this year.

[fyo]

One additional detail that I've seen reported now is that only the first two years are guaranteed. So what we know is that signing bonus + 1st year + 2nd year is between $46-ish and $55 million. The only real remaining question is how much of the cap hit they are pushing into years 3+ by making making part of that guaranteed money in a signing bonus. The more of the cap hit the team is willing to absorb now, the easier it would be to part ways later, but considering that the Dolphins are relatively strapped for cap space now, odds are a good portion is a signing bonus and thus prorated over the life of the contract.

With the new information we can make a stab at a contract, remembering that Howard has already prorated bonus money of $2.66 million in 2022 and 2023 along with $1.26 in 2024.

Given the constraints we have (providing they are accurate) and trying to make sure the year 3 salary doesn't crater (players generally don't like their salary paid to do that with the exception of signing bonuses), there actually isn't too much flexibility. Something like the following would be my guess:

Signing bonus: $39 million

Year	Salary	Cap hit	Dead money
2022	$2.0	$12.5	$54.6
2023	$7.0	$17.5	$37.11
2024	$7.0	$16.1	$24.7
2025	$17.5	$25.3	$16.9
2026	$17.5	$25.3	$9.1

Salary in this context includes roster bonuses. For veterans, base salary becomes guaranteed week 1 of the season (but paid out in installments each week of the season), whereas a roster bonus is paid out early in the league year (not always first day, though). There has been a bit of a shift towards guaranteeing some portion of the base salary early in the league year instead of giving it as a roster bonus, which only benefits the team since that money would not be paid out in the event of a suspension.

Finally, some reports mention an additional $5 million in possible bonuses. Some of that might be workout and per game bonuses, but the Dolphins haven't done that much under Grier. Some could also be attributable to performance-based bonuses (say a million a year if Howard gets a certain number of INTs). Or it could be a 3rd year bonus to pad out the money paid that year, particularly if the signing bonus is larger.

[fyo]

Details of the deal are in and it looks like some of the claims were, shall we say, "misrepresented". The deal doesn't have nearly as much fully guaranteed money as reports claimed. That "the most guaranteed money for a cornerback ever" apparently doesn't refer to this contract, but some sort of total seen over Howard's career.

Signing bonus: $17.115 million

Year	Salary	Cap hit	Dead money
2022	$1.135	$7.21	$43.05
2023	$18.25	$24.33	$18.73
2024	$18.50	$23.18	$11.52
2025	$16.75	$20.17	$8.1
2026	$18.25	$21.67	$4.68

Fully guaranteed money: $36.5 million.

$3 million a year of the salary (after year 1) is paid out as a roster bonus and $100k each year as a workout bonus. Year 1 and 2 are fully guaranteed. $4 million of the year 3 salary is guaranteed for injury and becomes fully guaranteed on the 3rd day of  the league year.

The $5 million in bonuses mentioned in early media reports is $1 million per year in incentives paid if Howard makes first ballot Pro Bowl or first team All-Pro.

I'm surprised the team felt the need to cut Howard's cap hit so much this year, especially given that they were looking to unload Parker.

[EDGECRUSHER]

^^^

I think the free agent signings and trades put us well over the top so we had to do some things like this. NFL Accounting is always strange but there is still some type of cap.

[masterfins]

Details of the deal are in and it looks like some of the claims were, shall we say, "misrepresented". The deal doesn't have nearly as much fully guaranteed money as reports claimed. That "the most guaranteed money for a cornerback ever" apparently doesn't refer to this contract, but some sort of total seen over Howard's career.

Signing bonus: $17.115 million

Year	Salary	Cap hit	Dead money
2022	$1.135	$7.21	$43.05
2023	$18.25	$24.33	$18.73
2024	$18.50	$23.18	$11.52
2025	$16.75	$20.17	$8.1
2026	$18.25	$21.67	$4.68

Fully guaranteed money: $36.5 million.

$3 million a year of the salary (after year 1) is paid out as a roster bonus and $100k each year as a workout bonus. Year 1 and 2 are fully guaranteed. $4 million of the year 3 salary is guaranteed for injury and becomes fully guaranteed on the 3rd day of  the league year.

The $5 million in bonuses mentioned in early media reports is $1 million per year in incentives paid if Howard makes first ballot Pro Bowl or first team All-Pro.

I'm surprised the team felt the need to cut Howard's cap hit so much this year, especially given that they were looking to unload Parker.

This is a great deal for Miami, he deserved to get paid and he's still playing at a top level.

[EDGECRUSHER]

This is a great deal for Miami, he deserved to get paid and he's still playing at a top level.

Yeah, whoever is in charge of negotiating our contracts deserves a raise. I don't think it's mainly Grier as this appears to be an accounting department thing but whoever it is really did great this offseason.

[fyo]

Yeah, whoever is in charge of negotiating our contracts deserves a raise. I don't think it's mainly Grier as this appears to be an accounting department thing but whoever it is really did great this offseason.

I think it very much is Grier.