X spotting! Miami Dolphins get back arguably their best player after long layoff
Xavien Howard is healthy — and COVID-19 free.
There’s a distinction — and both good for the Miami Dolphins.
On Thursday, Howard came off both the NFL’s physically unable to perform and reserve/COVID-19 lists.
That makes him available to practice Friday for the time since suffering a significant knee injury last fall.
Howard appeared in just five games in 2019: the first four, and then one last one after a two-week break.
Ultimately, the Dolphins decided to shut the former Pro Bowl cornerback down for the season; weeks later he had major surgery, the effects of which he still felt when training camp began.
By activating Howard off PUP, the Dolphins are saying that his knee is healthy enough to practice.
They’re also saying that he’s no longer affected by COVID-19. While the team cannot announce if he actually had coronavirus, he spent the past 16 days on the league’s newly created illness reserve list.
Howard was recovered enough this week to be allowed inside team headquarters. Reporters spotted him doing conditioning work during practice in recent days.
That was the biggest bit of Dolphins news Thursday, but far from the only.
They also executed a trade with Adam Gase and the Jets, sending running back Kalen Ballage to New York for a conditional 2021 seventh-round draft pick.
That asset was a bit of a gift for Miami, which was planning to simply cut the third-year running back. However, Gase — who coached Ballage here in 2018 — didn’t want to risk another team claiming Ballage through the waivers process, and so the Jets offered up Chris Grier a neglible asset to avoid that possibility.
Ballage had the best play of his career - a 75-yard touchdown run against Minnesota - three weeks before Gase was fired.
Three more roster moves: The Dolphins, as expected, brought back defensive end Avery Moss, who made eight starts for the Dolphins in 2019.
They also waived cornerback Picasso Nelson Jr. and center Donell Stanley.
THIS AND THAT
▪ Though Preston Williams injured his ACL on a punt return, special teams coordinator Danny Crossman expressed no concern with using him on returns.
“Injuries can happen anywhere at any time,” he said. “Number one, you have a guy that has a skillset. Number two, you have a guy that wants to do it. Then we have to decide how it best fits and what the situations are in the game.”
▪ Cornerback Byron Jones has been up-and-down in camp, breaking up some passing plays and being beaten on others in a competitive battle with receivers DeVante Parker and Preston Williams.
“You see a guy who is continuing over the course of camp, getting more comfortable with the terminology and the techniques and all of the things that are different than where he previously played [Dallas],” defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander said. “You see that he’s the ultimate professional, he’s a great influence on some of our young guys and how he approaches really everything that he does, whether he’s on the field, off the field or in the classroom.
▪ To emphasize the value of turnovers, the Dolphins have instituted a points system to reward defensive players who get them. And while Alexander declined to divulge what the players’ reward will be, he explained how it works:
“It’s a camp deal right now,” he said. “There are two different competitions. The corners versus safeties competition is really just a ball disruption deal. It’s categorized, it’s valued at a certain things for ball disruption or something on the field.
“Then we have our Hood vs. ‘Burbs’ competition, which is solely based on interceptions. Those guys got a chance to draft different members. That is settled on the field. Once practice is over, if both teams don’t have interceptions, both teams do 25 pushups.
“If one team wins, the loser does 25 pushups. If both teams tie with one or more interceptions in practice, then the coaches got 25 pushups. It’s just getting those guys conscious of always thinking about the ball, always attacking the football; and hopefully at the end of the day, those behaviors that we execute and believe in and take action in at practice, that will lead to just something we do in games because we understand that’s going to help our team win.”
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 4:32 PM.
