I’m frustrated as well but I just don’t think that’s feasible. We’ll have to keep some pieces. Why not keep the few that actually work and turn over the many that don’t?

Because Justin Houston is not worth that price tag. He’s been paid a shitload of money for 3 years now.

We need money to get players to fix this defense now.

Either take a sizeable restructure in next years cap hit or GTFO.

They gotta start shedding off bad deals to pay for ascending talent.

I have always liked Houston a lot- but he was clearly dogging it on Several plays vs. the Seahags. That is unacceptable. If he does not show up the next 2 games, they should cut ties with him. Berry, and Watkins as well. Take the massive dead money hit now, so in a few years, we can actually build a team around Mahomes instead of a bunch of overpaid bench warmers. These are the worst contracts on the books.

That's what I'm saying, though. That formula rarely works.

**** it, I'm down.

We were missing Houston for the better part of 2015 and 2016 and still did pretty well without him.

Let's just can all these ****ers.. I'd just rather start with like five other guys first.

Houston making plays like that is what we need in order for him to stick around.

That's why I'm OK with keeping him. Obviously he's not the same guy who recorded 22 sacks a handful of years ago, but assuming full health he's clearly a guy who can give us 10-15 QB takedowns a year.

And what's hilarious is that he actually has more FFs this season on only 9 sacks than he did the season in which he had 22. He's added another element to his game.

The guy's still got value. He's clearly overpaid but we've got cap room and I'm really not a fan of overpaying for FA help.

Houston definitely stepped up his game today.

The decision for 2019 is only one. Keep or cut. The likely decision will be to keep. You don't want to extend/restructure in 2019, I don't think that comes into play. That decision will be for 2020 where it then becomes extend/restructure or cut. If he continues the level of play he's at now, then the extend/restructure option becomes a good one. That all said, so long as there aren't any half-assed efforts going forward. I've seen Houston be one of few giving an all-out effort. What bothered me most was to see him not give full effort, even once. That disease cannot trickle down the team's best players and biggest leaders.

At this juncture, I consider the state of the defense as a keep Houston and Ford and cut ties with Berry situation. Berry just has to go. You can't run a team keeping guys that can't play around, especially ones on big contracts. Keep that defensive front intact as much as possible and go out and get some DBs that can play in the NFL.

I agree. Ford/Houston/Jones is such a deadly trio. It’d be nice to keep it together another year.

Make or break time now. He has a pretty nasty habit of going MIA in playoff games. Time to buck the trend.

That's literally our entire roster in some form or another lol

Can't cut everyone.

No, but do you cut the guy making 700k or the guy making 20+ million.

I look to cut Sorenson, Parker, Ragland, Scandrick, Murray, Nelson and probably Bailey before I cut Houston.

Having Houston on the field is a net positive. He's good for a huge splash play probably every 2-3 games on average while giving consistent effort and solid run defense on a play-to-play basis. Plus he's intelligent and doesn't commit penalties.

Sorenson's got a $5.2m cap hit, Nelson $2m, Scandrick $1.2m, Ragland $1m, Bailey $8m. The only one of that lot worth a damn is Bailey but I'm not sure we couldn't get 75% of his production for at or near league minimum.

You cut Houston and we're looking at Speaks playing 90% of snaps. If he goes down you're looking at Zombo starting again. No thanks.

I say keep Houston one more season. Find his replacement. Keep him around at a greatly reduced pay scale after his contract is up if he appears to still have some juice.

Parker, Scandrick, Nelson and Bailey are UFAs anyway, right? I'm all for showing Ragland and Sorenson the door, though.