Report: Charges against Dolphins CB Xavien Howard have been dropped - Updated

The 2020 NFL offseason did not start the way many Dolphins’ fans had hoped.

First, head coach Brian Flores fired several coaches, including offensive coordinator Chad O’ Shea. Then, Giants HC Joe Judge poached defensive coordinator Patrick Graham and quarterbacks coach Jerry Schuplinski—but that wasn’t even the worst of it.

Two days after the 2019 NFL season concluded, news leaked that Miami’s star cornerback Xavien Howard was arrested for domestic battery. The 911 tape was released a few days ago, and things only seemed to get worse for the shutdown corner.

“My fiance continues to think he can just push me, throw me into the wall without me doing nothing just because of who he is,” the victim told 911 according to the released tape. “But it’s kind of getting to a point, it’s just like, it’s getting physical.”

But as we learned a short time ago from Amber Wilson of 790 the Ticket, the charges against Xavien Howard have been dropped.

Howard, 25, signed a long-term deal with the Dolphins before the 2019 season. The NFL’s domestic violence policy has made standard a six-game suspension for the first offense, though it is not always applied according to those standards. The league has a precedent of suspending players even without guilty verdicts in cases, so Howard could still be disciplined by the league.

Update (1:15pm ET): According to a report from the Miami Herald’s Adam Beasley, the case was dropped after the alleged victim “told authorities she no longer wants to proceed with prosecution.”

“She also stated that it was a ‘situation that got out of hand’ and she has no fear of the defendant and no fear for her safety,” the Broward County State Attorney’s Office told Beasley. “There were no other witnesses to the incident and our prosecutors said they were unable to proceed without testimony from the alleged victim.”