Xavien Howard may not have played football in 2024, but he never wavered in his belief that he would be back on an NFL field sooner rather than later.
The cornerback, who sustained a foot injury early in the 2023 season, was not picked up by another team after he was released by the Miami Dolphins at the end of the season. He had opportunities to sign with other teams in 2024, he said, but nothing felt like the correct fit.
"I did have opportunities, I just feel like it wasn't the right situation for me," Howard said Wednesday. "So I gave it a shot, I'm like ok, I just can wait (until) next year and hopefully something will happen, and something ended up happening."
Howard, whose workouts and training never ceased over the last year, had been in touch with the Colts for a while – specifically, defensive coordinator Lou Anarumo, who knew Howard from their shared time with the Dolphins. And when the Colts' cornerback room started getting hit with injury after injury, Howard got a phone call.
"Me and coach Lou got a great relationship, my first two years in the league he worked with me at the Miami Dolphins, so I've been in contact with him, and when I got the call I was ready to come," Howard said. "I'm familiar with him, he's familiar with me, he know my game and I can expect what he's gonna call. So I was just excited for the opportunity, just ready to come play."
With eight years of NFL experience under his belt, and time playing under five different defensive coordinators, the 32-year-old brings a wealth of knowledge to the room. His experience playing under Anarumo means he has an increased level of familiarity with how Anarumo runs his defense. Now, the goal is to get him back into football shape and integrate him into the defense.
"The good thing with him is he's played a lot of football," Colts defensive backs coach Jerome Henderson said. "He's just gotta learn our language. He's probably played the same coverages, same defenses in the past. It's just, we may call it this, he called it ghat, so we just gotta get on the same page with him as to what we call things in our language. And he's doing extra to get himself ready to go. We're all working hard to get him ready."
"Obviously there's some rust," Henderson added. "He would echo that. But we're gonna knock that off daily and clean him up."
Howard is already listed as one of the Colts' starting cornerbacks on the unofficial depth chart ahead of the third preseason game against the Cincinnati Bengals this weekend; Charvarius Ward and Kenny Moore II are listed as the other two starters. And Howard has no doubts about being ready to play Week 1, which would put him out on the field against his former team.
"I've been talking to Lou for a little minute, so I already knew who was week one, and I've been preparing for it this offseason," Howard said. "And I'm ready to go."
While the Colts' secondary (especially the cornerback room) has had to deal with multiple injuries over the course of training camp, it is important to note that cornerbacks JuJu Brents and Jaylon Jones returned to practice on Wednesday after both missing the majority of camp with hamstring injuries.
