After all the drama last year Xavien was given a contract adjustment with the promise that it would be revisited again this offseason. I've not seen any details on this yet, but unless something has changed it'll be negotiations again soon. So, do we do whatever it takes to keep him, do we trade him, cut him, or something else?
It depends. I caught a story today that said some players/defenders are unhappy with Vance Joseph's defense and that the D really only took off once Flores started calling plays mid-season. No idea if there's truth to that or not. But if we are moving away from the cover zero, then Howard (and Jones) aren't as critical.
I do remember Jones and Howard being banged up the beginning of season also which would limit the cover Zero calls
As long as Howard doesn't make another stink about his contract, I see no reason to move on. He actually becomes more affordable as time goes on the next three years, and he's still playing at a top level. The exception would be if someone offers a Tunsil type deal that we can't say no to. Then, adios. FWIW, trading him would create about 6m in dead money and save about 9m in cap space this coming season.
Yeah unnamed and anonymous, convenient. I want to say X was not a Flores fan, though I could be wrong. Several named defenders such as Baker and Ogbah were positive regarding Boyer, so I'm not giving much credence to "some players" who may just be Flores lackeys and see writing on the wall.
Yeah, that's why I said I have no idea if it's true. To me, the bigger part is if Joseph will use the cover-zero that was highly successful with the players we have today. Our base defense was nowhere near as effective.
I would assume we will do some of both. The risk in assuming our defense was "elite" over the second half of the season is that we actually beat up on a number of pretty bad QBs. The one good team we faced spanked us. The Patriots and Bills also had highly ranked defenses (they played similar schedules ofc) and both got exposed in the playoffs. I suspect our Cover 0 brilliance was not insignificantly down to playing QBs who simply lacked the experience or ability to beat it. I have no opposition to continuing with it next year, but I also think we need the ability to flex out of it should we get a QB that exposes it.
Hopefully they throw the Cover Zero into the trash. It only worked against teams who had horrible passing games and is highly dangerous and reckless.
Yes, definitely. If you are trying to improve the team, you don’t discard your best players. I love watching Xavien play, and he and Byron are fantastic corners, who anchor, not just the secondary, but the entire D.
We have the cap space I say get it done. Doesn't make sense to keep letting your best players go. I'd load it on the front end so it's easy to get rid of him in a couple of years. 3 year deal Max.
If we don't retain him, who replaces him? Iggy? Oh ****ing great. The quality drop off to not replace him is not worth the risk. Just re sign the man. If he leaves wherever he goes he will play balls out and we will sit there regretting it.
To me, this is a very obvious decision. Howard has been healthy for the last two seasons, so injury is no longer a big fear. This was brought up last year, and I made the same point. If we trade Howard is there any chance that we win trade? I can confidently say "no." If we trade Howard is there any chance that we break even? I would say that this highly unlikely. At the end of the day, I just don't trust Grier with draft picks. As far as player for player trades go, I do not think that CB is the most important position, but I do think that it is near the top. Finally, I think that Howard is the type of player that actually affects our win/loss record. He has timely turnovers that have flipped the outcome of many games. We have the cap space. I say we make things right.