Kansas City Chiefs: It’s time to say good-bye to Justin Houston
This offseason will be a big one for the Kansas City Chiefs, but one of the biggest questions they’ll have to answer is what to do with Justin Houston moving forward.
Kansas City Chiefs general manager Brett Veach is entering one of the most important stretch of months of his young career. With the franchise being one off-sides penalty away from playing in the Super Bowl (Thanks, Dee Ford), the 40 year old GM needs to get more than a few things right this off season to keep the Chiefs in contention.
Veach inherited a very messy salary cap situation to put it lightly. Former GM John Dorsey was a master of talent evaluation, but where he always came up short was handling the salary cap. Dorsey married the Chiefs to some very ugly and expensive contracts and it ultimately cost him his job.
He was always a year too late when it came to extending players like Justin Houston and Eric Berry. Houston was reaching the final two years of his rookie contract in 2013-14, and rather than working out a deal before the start of either of those seasons, Dorsey opted to wait and watched him have a career year with 22 sacks.
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That following spring, the Chiefs were forced to franchise tag Houston and eventually extend him to a six-year, $101 million dollar deal with an average salary number of $16.3 million per year. Pass rushers certainly aren’t cheap but the Chiefs could’ve saved a ton of money had they gotten the deal done prior to that 2014 season.
Since the major contract, Justin Houston has yet to play an entire season of football and he’s only amassed 30 total sacks between 2015 to now. This isn’t to say that Houston isn’t worth a crap anymore or that he can’t still dominate games, but his level of production isn’t living up to a cap number of $16 million per annually.
In a league where coverage is becoming more of a priority than pass rushing, Houston’s position and cap number aren’t a priority for a Chiefs defense that ranked near the bottom in every statistical category.
Sure, they finished tied for the most sacks in the league last season, but when they faced better quarterbacks like Tom Brady for instance, they were able to get rid of the ball in three seconds or less, negating the strength of the Chiefs defense.
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If Houston is willing to either restructure the current deal, or, extending out the deal and spreading the remaining money over more years, then the Chiefs should bring him back.
Assuming the 30-year old line backer isn’t willing to restructure a deal, the Chiefs would save $14 million in immediate cap space with a dead cap number of $7.1 million in 2019. For Veach this is almost a no brainer decision with contracts for Chris Jones and Tyreek Hill looming over the horizon.
You’re probably asking “Why wouldn’t the Chiefs just trade him and get some value in return?”
Well that’s a great question and the Chiefs should at least try and shop Houston first before cutting ties. The only problem is finding a trade partner who is willing to absorb his absurd cap numbers of $21 and $19 million dollars over the next two seasons while also surrendering a draft pick or player to the Chiefs.
In more ways than one, the team making the deal with Kansas City would be doing them a huge favor. Again, this isn’t to say that Justin Houston isn’t a good player anymore and isn’t capable of making an impact for a team. For sure though, he isn’t worth that contract given his recent injury history and production on the field.
The Chiefs need to cleanse themselves of overpaid aging talent and I believe it starts with the release of Justin Houston. Moving on from that cap number will give the Chiefs more flexibility in free agency, re-signing players, and having room to get rookie deals done.
Four Chiefs to Move on From in 2019. dark. Next
If there is one thing Veach can learn form Dorsey it’s that, it’s better to be a year early than late on certain players. Staying ahead of the curve on Jones and Hill could pay dividends for the Chiefs and their cap situation in the future especially with the franchise staring down the barrel of Patrick Mahomes new contract in 2020.
As much as we all have loved Houston, it’s time for the Chiefs to say good-bye in 2019.