Xavien Howard – November 18, 2021
Thursday, November 18, 2021
CB Xavien Howard
(After last Thursday’s game, CB Marlon Humphrey put out a tweet saying WR Jaylen Waddle is going to be a top 10 receiver year. As someone who practices with him, watches him up close, what do you think makes him stand apart from other receivers?) – “I would just say how we use him. I feel like he’ll be a threat and I feel he’s just got to grow and overall, just understand the game. A top 10 receiver, that’s big. So you know them guys coming a lot. I feel like he definitely has that in him.”
(Head Coach Brian Flores mentioned a couple days ago that they announced in the meeting that you were the AFC Defensive Player of the Week and guys clapped. It sounds kind of hokey or cheesy but how does that make you feel when everybody is recognizing an accomplishment that you had?) – “It’s cool. I just want to win at the end of the day. The accomplishment is cool to have but I really just want to win.”
(What, if anything, changes for you when the defense goes blitz crazy like it did against Baltimore the other night?) – “We’re on an island so we’re out there on an island and there’s a lot that goes on. My whole mindset is just make a play. I feel like there will be more opportunities when the ball is coming out quick or the quarterback is holding the ball for the whole defense. I feel like great things happen when we make that call.”
(So you enjoy that, right?) – “Hell, yeah.”
(Seeing S Jevon Holland and S Brandon Jones blitz, do you go to Defensive Coordinator Josh Boyer and say let me get a crack at it?) – “That ain’t my game, man. (laughter) I just want to pick the ball off really and have the ball in my hands. If they call me to do that, I’m definitely going to do that.”
(The Jets are making the decision apparently of starting QB Joe Flacco. What are your thoughts on facing him?) – “We faced him last year. He’s a veteran quarterback and I feel like he’s been in the league a long time so he knows what’s coming to him and stuff like that. I’m sure he’s seen what we did Thursday night so I’m sure they’re preparing for that. He’s a veteran quarterback so he’s seen a lot of football. There’s nothing that I think will surprise him that we come at him with.”
(The team has won three games and in two of those games, you forced a turnover that led to a win. In general, in thinking about all 10 games, how do you feel that you’ve played this season?) – “Ok.”
(Why do you say that?) – “I feel like I haven’t played up to my standard a couple games. I’m just worried about getting better each week and getting back, having fun and doing the things I used to. And that’s making plays.”
(Is being healthy…) – “I’m healthy, yeah.”
(What role does that play in your ability to be as good as you’ve always been?) – “I feel like – I wouldn’t say not being healthy. It’s just growing pain. Just understanding what teams are doing to me now and just knowing that things I did last year are not going to be that easy. Everything I’m going to have to do, I’m going to work for it. Just understanding that and knowing how teams are attacking me now. Just getting that down pat, I should be good.”
(How are teams attacking you? What’s changed?) – “They’re running away from me. (laughter) They’re running away from me so it’s not going to be like you’re on the outside, one-on-one and (you get) a fade ball or this and that or something that happens close to the ball. It’s something that I have to understand that what I put on film that they see, I’m going to have to get better at.”
(If you were them, you would do that too, wouldn’t you?) – “For sure. For sure.”
(Are there any quarterbacks or receivers or offensive players from other teams that you’re friendly with who have made a comment to you after the game like, ‘We didn’t want to throw to your side?’ Have you gotten anything like that from any friends in the league?) – “No. I’m not friends – I really don’t talk. It’ll be good game or this and that and then it’s over with.”
(You don’t talk to receivers at all?) – “No, not really. No. I probably talk to the other cornerback. That’s all I really worry about, the cornerback position. If I see a cornerback doing a good job or somebody I’m competing with overall, that’s who I talk to the most.”
(The strategy that has been utilized in the last two games where, like you said, you and CB Byron Jones are on islands and you have eight, nine guys blitzing the heck out of the opponent, do you think that’s a sustainable strategy? That’s something that you guys can embrace as your identity the rest of the way?) – “Hell no. It’s football man. If somebody is going to gameplan that, we’re going to have to get out of that. We are going to have to get back to doing what we have to do. It’s football right now and people are going to get to know what’s going on, how to do this or how to protect that. At the end of the day, coach is going to make better calls or calls that can put us in position to make plays and we just got to do it.”
(Ten picks in a year is just so incredible and rare.) – “Man, that is old. That is old.”
(Has that spoiled you in the sense that now even if you are playing well, you’ll be unhappy if you don’t have an INT total approaching what you had last year?) – “Ten picks is old. It’s a new year. I’m tired of the 10 picks, like damn.”
(How do you feel? You made game-changing plays like we mentioned. Your two fumble recoveries that essentially iced or won a game for this team.) – “That’s all I worry about is winning. The individual stuff that I’m doing, it helps the team win so that’s what I’m really worried about. Not just getting an interception or trying to chase goals out there right now. I just want to win football (games).”
(The best players who ever played in their sport – for example in hockey, Wayne Gretzky, scored more goals than everybody, more assists in everybody. What he used to say is, ‘The hardest comparison is the comparison to myself.’ What is that like to know that you’re always going to be compared to your best season, your best game?) – “Right. I feel like what you put out there, people see that. By me doing what I did that year, they’re expecting that next year. At the end of the day, you’re not going to get that each year. I haven’t seen somebody do that in I don’t know how long. It’s just knowing what you did and knowing that even though the goals are more than what I did that year, it’s like each year you can have that attitude but it’s not going to be the same. That’s what you’ve got to understand. At the end of the day, you’ve got to look at the man in the mirror and be like, ‘I’m doing what is best for the team and what I can do.’”
(Punching the ball out, have you ever watched someone like Peanut Tillman or anyone? Does that just come naturally to you when the play comes to you?) – “The crazy part is I think when we were playing Chicago, he came and talked to the team. That was one thing he was talking about. I tried to add that to my game because I wasn’t punching the ball out and forcing fumbles. Every time the ball is in front of me or the ball carrier has the ball, I try to punch it out. That’s what I tried to add to my game.”
(That was in Chicago this year?) – “Yeah.”
(When you did the joint practices?) – “Yeah, when we did the joint practices. He came and talked to us.”
