Houston is the only one worth paying for, and I have a feeling he won't do something Jared Allen-esque to **** up his value so he should be able to get stupid money in FA.

Wiser to let him walk.

Good. Pay stupid money to true playmakers like Houston. And pay good coin to someone like Berry. If our strategy changes from overpaying Guards and 5-techniques and more toward these kinds of players, that's a great thing.

What if Houston wants Mario Williams money?

Paying top coin for a 25 year old stud pass rusher? Of course I would.

Also, he won't get Mario Williams money. 3-4 OLBs have surprisingly more reasonable contracts.

Once Sutton is gone KC might not run a 3-4 though..

Houston is too valuable not to keep, and is only going to become moreso. You pay whatever it takes.

I think that would be a really terrible shame if the Chiefs ditched the 3-4 given our personnel. And I'd be shocked if we did.

Exactly what would we lose out on....personnel wise? Houston can play DE in a 4-3. Poe is a damn good fit in a 4-3.

If your stud players have shown they're great fits for a 3-4, then build your defense around that. I'm sure those guys could be successful, but not even close to a guarantee that they'll be as good in a different role. We don't need to Pioli this thing and force a defensive approach that we can't guarantee will match the personnel.

We don't run the 3-4 100% of the time.

I get that. i'm not 100% opposed to a defensive change. But I hope there would be a really good reason behind it. My personal dream would be for Rex Ryan to get fired and then hired here, but I think that's a pipe dream. I just think this team has too long a history of hiring defensive coordinators who refuse to adapt the scheme to fit the players. In this case, we actually have a good scheme, but the DC has been pretty iffy about running it.

The further that Rex (or any other) Ryan stays from here the better.

No one would trade for his contract.

I've been kicking the 4-3 change tires for awhile

Two different styles of the 34 defense now, and they still don't have the right personnel to play it in pass happy league and they go right to nickel/dime 50 percent of the time anyway so **** it.

34 defense was good for all of 9 games (last year) in 5 years of it being installed in the Chiefs defense. A switch to the 43 would keep them from drafting shitty 5 techs and signing even shittier ILB thumpers that cant do anything. And it would maybe have Eric Berry play back more.

Switching to the 4-3 really wouldn't be killing anything of value on our team (at least IMO).

Houston - Poe - DeVito/Walker - Catapano: That defensive line is stout against the run and I believe that Houston is just fine with his hand in the dirt.

Our biggest need would become LBs. DJ could either man the Mike spot or move over to the Weak LB spot. So you're looking at filling the SLB and MLB spots....either of which could be manned by someone this season.