Clowney is the most overrated OLB/DE, he came out of the draft and everyone looked at his measurables and said ,"He's a freak, he's going to be great!" No, he's not. He's subpar with his gifts so let someone else make a mistake paying him so he fades into obscurity. You have to get value for the trade and I'd rather trade Ford plus a pick for a great player then just swapping guys we have no intention of keeping around.

I mean he’s playing out of position in Houston and he is amazing at run stopping

I like Ward and Fuller a lot as 2/3rds of your primary corner stable. Fuller's really best in the slot, but yeah. You need one more high talent guy. Watts and Lucas both play more of a FS, we'll need more of a SS in this new defense. Berry's great at that but will not be available, and wildly expensive at $16+ million. That's not a spot you want a rookie when you're trying to cover Gronk to get to the SB. If you're keeping Ford, his only real position is RDE, and his liability against the run is going to be real problem. $15 million. If you keep Houston without restructuring, that's $21.1 million for a SAM backer. Not typically a high dollar resource; less sacks, some coverage responsibilities, and primarily run stuffer.
If you tag and trade Ford, get a #2 roughly for him, You can draft his replacement without having to rely on him to produce immediately. you can play Houston at RDE, where he'd be a plus player. At $21.1 million, you still need to restructure, as that's WAY too much money if you're trying to field a solid defense.

Ideally, this what I think-
Bye Berry, $9m savings.
Bye Ford, tag and trade net #2, $15m
Restructure Houston's deal, convert chunk to bonus, etc. try to get it down to something like $13m cap hit. $8m savings.
That's an extra $30 m.
Houston plays RDE next to Jones. Both with a single blocker in front of them, as the 4-3 dictates.
Sign S Landon Collins for $15 m per.
Sign SAM Anthony Barr for $10m
Front 7 looks pretty tight, S is no longer a glaring weakness.
Draft CB's and a DE/EDGE to rotate with Houston and take that spot in a year or two.

I agree with the sentiment, but you literally can't pay JH $21.1 million dollars in 2019. Tying up that much money on a #31 defense could literally keep you from the SB.

Safety pay is stagnating and declining year over year. Absolutely no way you'll have to pay him 15 million a year.

Clowney is a clown. He’s the main reason why we had to hear about TEH COLTS OL!!!!!11 because he kept getting ****ing abused by them.

And you wanna talk about Justin Houston and questionable effort? Boy, you’re sure to love Clowney then!!

Generally, yeah. He's in prime years, but if you're right, even better. You could probably afford a 2nd tier WLB compete with DoD in that case as well.

You can just fill SO MANY holes if we get out from these albatross contracts is my point. If we're overhauling the defense, then let's OVERHAUL THE DEFENSE.

If you're gonna go with the traditional 43, yeah Clowney would be an option. He'd be a monster at DE next to Jones at DT

I'm not excited to get out of the albatross contract with one safety only to jump back in on another.

Just draft some guys at safety

Clowney would be AWESOME in Spag's defense, but unfortunately the cost is way too prohibitive. You can't give him the kind of contract he's gonna want when you're paying Houston and Berry big money and needing to invest another significant contract in the secondary this off-season.

the guys at RGR Football speculate they'll just release Ford AND Houston - I guess we'll know something within about 4 weeks or so.

Don't shoot the messenger

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It wasn’t just any game. It was the Ravens game that ended up deciding if we got HFA. By far the most important of the year at the time.

Aaron Donald and Khalil Mack aren’t 30. They also haven’t missed 44% of their games the last 4 years like Houston.

Christ almighty. That isn’t worth $21 million.

Just turn his $5.6 million prorated money into a guaranteed bonus and lower his shitty cap hit to $15.5 million and figure out what the **** to do with him in 2020.

Collins wouldn't be an albatross, is 26, with his prime right in front of you.

You need some veteran playmakers, you can't just go all rookies and 2nd year guys if you're this close to a SB.

I agree EB should be gone. I was a big supporter of his but over the last 2 years the Chiefs have lost every game he's played in. Even if it only saves a hundred bucks and a spot at the homeless shelter it's time for him to move on. JH's cost/production says he should be gone. Rarely are players willing to take a pay cut/restructure. DF's 1 year production in a contract year says tag or tag/trade but not long term contract. Any/all 3 can be replaced with adequate "better fit" FA vets and save money and not get any worse overall. CJ led the team in sacks so replacing DF and JH 1.5 sacks/game isn't as hard to do as one would think.