“It’s pretty clear this is a contract situation, which we’ve talked about internally,” Flores said.
He finished third in the AP Defensive Player of the Year voting and had a strong argument for winning the award over Los Angeles Rams defensive tackle Aaron Donald and Pittsburgh Steelers’ edge rusher T.J.
Howard feels like he’s outplayed the five-year, $75.25 million extension he signed in May 2019, which is set to pay him $12.075 million in 2021 and $49.325 million over the next four seasons.
Howard saw the Dolphins sign cornerback Byron Jones to a five-year, $82.5 million deal in March 2020, and then Howard outplayed Jones this past season, which has a role in his desire for a new deal.
Multiple teams have approached the Dolphins about a Howard trade over the past year, but up to this point Miami hasn’t shown a serious inclination to deal its star cornerback, sources told ESPN.
He has played two years on that deal — but only one on the new portion of the extension given in 2019 was the final year of his rookie deal.
New contract adjustments have happened after one year in the past, but that typically is following a short-term extension and not shortly after a longer one like Howard’s five-year extension.
One element that hurts Howard’s pursuit is that he has missed 24 games in his career because of knee injuries, and health tends to be a bigger question mark as players get older.