Jordan Howard‘s time in Miami has come to an end. The Dolphins have cut the running back, head coach Brian Flores announced during his press conference on Monday.
Interestingly, Flores deemed it a “mutual parting,” which likely has something to do with Howard being frustrated with his limited role. Even though he’s a vested veteran since it’s this late in the season, Howard will be subjected to waivers. We heard a couple of weeks ago that Howard might be available in a trade, but clearly there weren’t any takers. Still, he could be a target of some contending teams looking for running back help.
Howard signed a two-year, $9.75MM deal with Miami back in March, and they proved to regret it almost immediately. He started the first two games but only carried the ball 13 times for 11 yards, and quickly took a backseat to Myles Gaskin and Matt Breida. He’s mostly been inactive recently. All told, he’ll finish his Dolphins tenure with a pitiful 33 yards on 28 attempts through five games, although he did score four touchdowns.
A fifth-round pick of the Bears in 2016, Howard became Chicago’s starter as a rookie and spent his first three seasons as their lead back. The Indiana product slowly fell out of favor with Matt Nagy, and was shipped out to Philadelphia before the 2019 season. Last year with the Eagles he was relatively productive, rushing the ball 119 for 525 yards and six scores. Howard’s salary isn’t guaranteed for 2021 and he’s only owed around $721K for the rest of this year (per this tweet from Field Yates of ESPN.com), so it’s certainly not inconceivable that a team will claim him.
‘All told, he’ll finish his Dolphins tenure with a……two-year, $9.75MM deal’ Enjoy the money and good luck w/ the your next team!
It’s really only about $4.75MM ($4.0MM if he’s claimed). His 2021 money wasn’t guaranteed.
Still a waste of money for Miami, but the pain is limited to this year.
At the time he was signed they had no proven RBs, so it was a reasonable risk. Unfortunately, he showed up to training camp out of shape and never got into good enough shape to be affective.
I’d take $4m+ for a year and half worth of work. Good for him & I hope he signs elsewhere.
Cleveland
Browns don’t need him. He will go somewhere he can get some PT
Remember when the headlines were “There is a new Jordan in Chicago”
I could see the Chargers taking a run at Mr Jordan to add another dimension and help turn those close losses into wins.
You comment that every player should go to the Browns, which doesn’t make our fanbase look great.
Either way, the Browns don’t need him. He’s clearly not better than Chubb or Hunt, and you could even argue that D’Ernest Johnson is a better option — especially given how much cheaper he is.
Not to mention, Howard is leaving Miami as he wants to be first string. Whoever claims Howard should be planning to use him as at least the second back. Somewhere where there is already a first tier scatback but the main backs aren’t great. Howard would be an upgrade on Peyton Barber for the Redskins but there’s already McKissic and Antonio Gibson ahead of him on the depth chart.
Bears could use him, haven’t had a consistent running back since he left.
Bingo
I’m not sure he fits in with Matt Nagy’s unique offense approach.
I’m not sure I’d call the 3 downs and a punt approach “unique”.
Yeah, but the way in which they get to those “3 plays and a punt” is unique. He’s perfecting the blueprint that all future horrible head coaches will try to emulate.
The Bears saw he was going to fall off a cliff. Impressive since he had great stats his first 3 years.
Yes, only they had such vision. Then again he was a 5th round pick, “had great stats his first 3 years” and was dealt for a 6th rounder, such visionaries…