Kansas City Chiefs: Realistic look at 2019 Chiefs roster – Version 2

What to do with Justin Houston

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was written before it was announced that the Kansas City Chiefs had released Justin Houston.

Currently as the roster sets after the Dee Ford signing, the Chiefs have just over $10 million in cap space, and as already mentioned previously the Hill extension will take $10 million of that this season.

After removing players unlikely to make the 53-man roster the cap space can be increased to just over $4.1 million (after adding in Hill’s extension), but that leaves the Chiefs with just 42 players and not much money to fill the rest of the roster. In other words, other moves will have to be made.

The first, and maybe the biggest move, is one that would involve getting rid of Justin Houston. It has already been reported by Matt Verderame of FanSided that the Chiefs don’t plan on keeping both Justin Houston and Dee Ford, so with Dee Ford officially being franchise tagged, it is becoming less and less likely that we will see Justin Houston in a Chiefs uniform this season.

This move, whether it’s a release or a trade, would save the Chiefs around $14 million according to Over the Cap. Although there have been conflicting reports, Houston still has enough value that the Chiefs will probably be able to trade him rather than release him.

A Houston trade could surely bring in a couple additional draft picks – one being at least a third rounder – which wouldn’t be bad considering the cap space that would be created. Trading Justin Houston would be a tough pill to swallow, especially since he can still play, but the cap space is badly needed.

The $14 million a trade or release pre-June first would save would immediately jump the cap space to $18.1 million in my imaginative roster.