Colts DC not giving up on veteran CB Xavien Howard despite struggles: ‘It’s not just one guy’
By seemingly every metric, Howard has struggled to open the season. Through four weeks, his target EPA of 14.3 as the nearest defender ranks fifth-worst among all corners (min. 10 targets). Those below him are all young players. Howard is a 32-year-old veteran who appears to have lost a step or two.
“We’ll evaluate everybody, every game,” Anarumo said. “X is a player on the team, so he’s certainly going to get evaluated. … Not only X, but everybody will always be evaluated each week, based on performance. We’ll always take a look at all those things and move forward accordingly.”
Charvarius Ward has been excellent, generating a -0.4 target EPA. His play, coupled with Howard’s struggles, is only going to lead to defenses continuing to pick on the elder stateman.
“It’s not just one guy,” Anarumo said. “If you put the microscope on one person, everybody can always finish, maybe, better here or there. I think he had some plays where he did finish well, and there’s others where he can do better, for sure.”
