Xavien Howard’s play this season has directly led to multiple victories for the Miami Dolphins in a year where there haven’t been many of them. His performance in Week 11 against Baltimore even earned him Defensive Player of the Week honors.
Despite that, the 28-year-old knows that he’s capable of playing much better, and he said as much during his Thursday media availability when he was asked how he thinks he’s played this season.
“OK,” Howard said. “I feel like I haven’t played up to my standard a couple games. Just worry about getting better each week, and just getting back, having fun, doing the things I used to do, and that’s making plays.”
Early in the year, Howard was struggling, but he was still responsible for the strip against New England that gave the team the win in the season opener. In the last three weeks, he and the rest of the defense have started to turn everything around.
Howard’s right. This hasn’t been his best season, but he has seven games to really build towards something.
