Chiefs having ‘dialogue’ with other teams about linebacker Justin Houston
Standing on a podium Thursday at the NFL Combine, Chiefs general manager Brett Veach paused.
Normally a fast talker, Veach collected his thoughts before answering the reporter’s question.
Will Justin Houston remain with the Chiefs next season?
“I would say that he’s under contract for this year and next year,” Veach said, choosing his words about the 30-year-old pass rusher carefully. “And again, our plan is to play with him and we look forward to having him on our roster, but there’s a lot of dialogue.”
Word of the Chiefs’ communication with other teams about Houston first began to spread Wednesday night in Indianapolis when NFL Network insider Ian Rapoport reported the Chiefs were engaging in trade talks centering around Houston. A league source confirmed to The Star that the team was participating in exploratory discussions, but a move wasn’t imminent.
Thursday morning, though, Veach’s long pause said everything. Houston’s age coupled with his injury history and steep salary — a $21 million salary cap hit next season — make his future in Kansas City that much more in doubt.
“Listen, Justin Houston’s a great player,” Veach said. “Our deal is to obviously acquire and maintain as many great players as you can. I think this time of year, I’m no different than any other GM standing on the podium.
“There’s 32 teams here. Every coach is here, every personnel member is here and we’re staying at the same hotel. There’s a lot of dialogue. I think right now we’re just in the process of collecting information and working with what we have and then leave here and then get together again and discuss and see what we can do to make our team better.”
Trading Houston would clear out a significant amount of cap space, but odds are low that the Chiefs would be able to make a favorable trade. Although he’s coming off a 28-tackle, nine-sack season, Houston is an aging player with a significant contract.
If the Chiefs cut or trade Houston before June 1, they would carry $7.1 million in dead money, but get $14 million back in cap space. If Houston is cut or traded after June 1, they would carry $5.6 million in dead money, but the Chiefs would get $15.5 million in cap space back.
“Everything’s fluid for the next few weeks until we get into the start of the league year,” Veach said. “We’ll handle that as the information we get, what’s real, what’s not real. It’s a good problem to have because he’s a great player.”
Houston isn’t the only Chiefs pass rusher with an unclear future.
Though outsider linebacker Dee Ford is expected to be franchise tagged by the organization, Veach said nothing had been worked out yet between the two sides. The deadline to apply the tag is March 5.
“It’s a little bit tricky because no one is kind of showing their hand what they’re going to do and what other teams are going to do,” Veach said. “It’s a little bit of a guessing game. The good thing is we were able to speak to him after the season, spoke to his agent, and everybody’s on the same page.”
This story was originally published February 28, 2019 at 12:41 PM.