{"id":203639,"date":"2024-12-05T17:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T22:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=203639"},"modified":"2024-12-05T15:51:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-05T20:51:49","slug":"ravens-chargers-xavien-howard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2024\/12\/05\/ravens-chargers-xavien-howard\/","title":{"rendered":"Ravens, Chargers May Finally Sign Cowboys Free Agent Target"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ravens, Chargers may finally sign Cowboys free agent target cornerback Xavien Howard<\/a> this season. According to multiple reports<\/a>, the Dallas Cowboys brought in the veteran for a visit but have no plans to sign him anytime soon. However, Howard has been on a few NFL team visits this year including the Cincinnati Bengals alongside running back Leonard Fournette but Howard didn’t like the offer after declining it<\/a>. Originally selected in the 2016 NFL Draft, the four-time Pro Bowler was one of the better secondary pieces in the league after spending the entirety with the Miami Dolphins.<\/p>\n

However, despite being elite for all the other years, the Dolphins were against giving him a new contract after a disappointing campaign last year. They felt he wasn’t worth the $26 million he was going to account for this season, but Howard had yet to sign with a roster, which could be shocking to many. While the Cowboys are becoming shorthanded in their secondary unit, it was no surprise why they brought Howard and a few cornerbacks in for a workout. Howard is a legitimate veteran who could sign a temporary deal to provide some support but the Cowboys didn’t make an offer.<\/p>\n

It’s also surprising that the Cowboys brought in Howard considering they’re one loss out of the postseason picture. With Zack Martin<\/a> going on season-ending IR and Dak Prescott<\/a> out for the year, Howard could be signing with a playoff team that needs help with the secondary unit. Two contenders could use his services for the long haul in the postseason.<\/p>\n

Ravens, Chargers May Finally Sign Cowboys Free Agent Target Xavien Howard<\/h2>\n

Secondary Woes in Baltimore<\/h3>\n

The Baltimore Ravens have a lot of firepower on the offense after signing Derrick Henry this past offseason. Lamar Jackson is playing at his peak and most of the receivers, except for incoming wideout Diontae Johnson<\/a> are putting on a stellar year. However, the pass defense for the team continues to be torn apart each week as they haven’t found why they’re struggling despite the talent they have. The Ravens have to understand that every game won’t be a shootout and they lost several winnable games, including AFC matchups against the Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n

The secondary is the main ingredient this team needs to fix but Harbaugh made a few changes like trading for cornerback Tre’Davious White and elevating Ar’Darius Washington<\/a>. Kyle Hamilton<\/a> is dealing with concussion issues and Brandon Stephens isn’t playing his best ball so this leaves veteran Marlon Humphrey making up for their mistakes. White has yet to get a full-time role as they plan on expanding his role but it’s not enough for the long haul of this pass defense. Howard might not be the same superstar but he would be a significant upgrade over Stephens since guys like Nate Wiggins are going through growing pains.<\/p>\n

Winning in the Pass Defense<\/h3>\n

If any team loves winning football games on their defense, it’s Jim Harbaugh. The pass defense has been efficient this season for the Chargers only allowing a league-best 13.1 points. The Chargers went through disappointment the past several seasons with a horrid pass defense but incoming defensive coordinator Jesse Minter fixed that issue.<\/a> The team is probably the best AFC wild card roster this year but they could use some veteran experience in their corner since the postseason is a different ballgame than the regular season.<\/p>\n

They have to get through competitive rosters this postseason like the Ravens and Chiefs so they might as well start loading up to get ready. With Asante Samuel<\/a> on IR, they could use the extra depth to assist them on their playoff run. They brought in Marcus Maye to replace Alohi Gilman so it shouldn’t surprise anyone if they sign Howard. Kristian Fulton<\/a> is stepping up but he still has a few inconsistency issues and this is something they can’t afford once the competition increases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a visit with the Dallas Cowboys, this best available free agent cornerback could soon sign with a roster in time for the NFL playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4795,"featured_media":203641,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[36,10,19,18,4],"tags":[7642,6031,2147,1274,7638,1921,5106],"class_list":["post-203639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl-news","category-ravens","category-cowboys","category-chargers","category-dolphins","tag-chargers-featured","tag-kristian-fulton","tag-marcus-maye","tag-marlon-humphrey","tag-ravens-featured","tag-tredavious-white","tag-xavien-howard"],"modified_by":"Anthony Palacios","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4795"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":203654,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203639\/revisions\/203654"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}