There is a story from USA Today’s For The Win making the rounds on 25 NFL stars who could be cut this offseason, including Justin Houston who is the No. 1 player on the list.
Let’s just say it: cutting Justin Houston doesn’t make sense.
First, the money, the Chiefs would have nearly $13 million in dead money if the Chiefs cut Houston. They would save $7.9 million in cap space but there would be a dead money hit of $12.7 million. The Chiefs created some cap space lately with the Alex Smith trade but the Chiefs don’t have enough space to throw away that much.
Second, the player. The Chiefs biggest problem last year was the lack of a pass rush so the solution is to take away the best pass rusher? I don’t think that’s the right way to go about it. I want more out of Houston as much as the next person but he remains your best pass rusher and with Dee Ford’s future in limbo Houston needs to be part of the team.
It’s the offseason so we spend a lot of time figuring out ways to create more cap space but we often forget that you still have to replace the player. There is no pass rusher tree so the Chiefs should hang onto Houston until they find someone who is better than him.