Dolphins CB Xavien Howard torments the NFL’s best QBs. He was once a standout QB, too
Xavien Howard had done it again.
Buffalo Bills star receiver Stefon Diggs cut inside on a short slant route and appeared to have a step on the Dolphins All-Pro cornerback.
But Howard, trailing, broke on a pass from Buffalo quarterback Josh Allen and dove for the low pass. With the ball secured, Howard attempted to get back on his feet but Diggs tackled him, keeping from ruining the Bills’ drive any more. Howard’s teammates quickly picked him up, and they sprinted to one side of the end zone for a photo op, as they did so many times during the 2020 season.
As the Dolphins (1-1) enter their Week 3 road game against the Las Vegas Raiders (2-0) on Sunday, Howard is back to his 2020 ways. His 19 interceptions since the start of the 2018 season are tied with New England Patriots cornerback J.C. Jackson for the most in the NFL. His 10 picks last season were the most any defender has recorded since 2007.
Howard has tormented quarterbacks, young and old, with an uncanny ability to get his hands on the ball, but one that doesn’t seem so unfathomable given his past as a quarterback and receiver.
Attending Wheatley High School in Houston, Howard’s first passion was basketball. (Wheatley also produced former Raiders cornerback Lester Hayes, the 1980 Defensive Player of the Year). After not playing football as a freshman, Howard made the transition as a sophomore.
“He was a little skinny kid, wide shoulders, had a frame on him,” Cornelius McFarland, Howard’s high school football coach, said in a phone interview.
As he moved into his junior season, an over-the-shoulder catch by Howard in 7-on-7s caught McFarland’s eye. Howard started as a receiver but when the team’s quarterback got hurt, he was moved to that spot. He quickly formed a 1-2 punch throwing to William Jackson, now a cornerback for the Washington Football Team.
“Oh man, he had a cannon on him,” McFarland said.
A short-handed team of just around 30 players plus Howard’s athleticism meant dual responsibilities for Howard, who also began to play cornerback as a junior. Jackson later joined Howard on defense as bookend cornerbacks.
“I feel like it does help me,” Howard said last week. “I played everything so playing receiver also helped me, just looking back and finding the ball. I feel like a lot of cornerbacks panic when the ball is in the air and that’s probably what I do well is just look back. No matter if I’m beat or not, I try to make a play on the ball.”
YouTube videos from 2012 show a young Howard, in a purple, No. 4 jersey, darting past and bouncing off tacklers in one clip, returning interceptions for touchdowns in another and even handling punt-return duties.
“RG3. That’s who I thought I was,” Howard joked, referencing Robert Griffin III, the former Baylor quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner. Howard would eventually arrive at Baylor, the season after Griffin left for the NFL.
McFarland still remembers Howard’s last game in the state playoffs and a sequence in which Howard ran in a long touchdown and then intercepted a pass on the goal line on the following possession, returning it to the opposite end zone.
“He probably had 400 yards all-purpose,” McFarland said.
Howard was set to attend Trinity Valley Junior College in Athens, Texas, but when he was deemed academically eligible, Baylor swooped in to offer a scholarship late in the recruiting period.
“I just had to get that guy,” said former Baylor cornerbacks coach Carlton Buckels. “He was a tremendous athlete, man. I knew the sky was the limit for him.”
At Baylor, Howard redshirted his freshman year but Buckels saw a raw player who just needed to refine his technique and improve his football knowledge. Buckels recalls Howard getting beat as a freshman but always looking back at the quarterback as soon as a receiver got a yard or two ahead of him.
“I’m like, ‘Xavien, what are you doing? Why are you looking back?’” said Buckels, now the cornerbacks coach at Tulsa. “He’s like, ‘Coach, I’m trying to catch it.’ I said, ‘Hey, I like that, but at the same time, I’ve got to find a way to get you in position.’ And that’s what we worked on the most, just trying to find a way to get him in position because I knew he was going to catch the ball once he was there.”
Howard’s penchant for takeaway plays isn’t just limited to interceptions. In the Dolphins’ season-opening win against the Patriots, he separated the ball from New England running back Damien Harris and then recovered the ball to preserve a one-point win.
“Every game I feel like I have to make something happen for the team and give the ball to the offense,” Howard said after the decisive forced fumble.
Dolphins cornerbacks coach Charles Burks said Howard will still brag about his days as a high school quarterback from time to time. And when he watches Howard’s “natural knack for the ball,” he sees a player who has matched athleticism with studious preparation throughout the week to become one of the NFL’s best ballhawks.
“He’s covering to make plays, not just to cover a guy,” Burks said.
