How the Chicago Bears Could Pull Off a Justin Houston Trade

There were rumors out of Kansas City a few weeks ago that the team might be forced to move on from Justin Houston. It was a matter of figuring out how. Initial rumors now reveal the Chiefs' plan. Ian Rapoport reported that the team is engaged in trying to trade the veteran pass rusher in order to clear enough salary cap space to hand out extensions to young defensive stalwarts in Dee Ford and Chris Jones. Inevitably this begs the question. Can the Chicago Bears get in on this? It's hard not to feel a sense of possibility with such a move. Houston is still one of the better pass rushers in the NFL. He knows head coach Matt Nagy well from their time together in Houston and the Bears run a 3-4 defense that would be perfect for his skill set. The key to the issue is price, both in compensation for the Chiefs and also his contract. On the draft front, they may be okay. A 3rd round pick could be enough to fetch Houston. Keep in mind the Patriots got a 2nd for Chandler Jones back in 2016. Jones was 26-years old. Houston is four years older. The bigger issue is that contract. As things stand, there's no way for the Bears to make it work. At least not without some creativity from GM Ryan Pace. https://twitter.com/RapSheet/status/1100940476709027842 [video width="1920" height="1080" mp4="https://www.sportsmockery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Justin-Houstons-Huge-Game-with-10-Tackles-3-Sacks-NFL-Week-12-Player-Highlights.mp4"][/video]

Justin Houston trade for Chicago Bears could be secured via contract extension

As things stand, Houston will command a $21.1 million salary cap hit in 2019. That's a $15.25 million base salary with a $5.6 million prorated bonus and a $250,000 workout bonus. There is no way the Bears can absorb that contract as is. They would need to find a way to lower the cap hit. It's doubtful Houston would take an outright pay cut. A better idea might be a contract extension but at a reduced rate. Right now Houston only has two years left on his current deal. He's still due $7.85 million in guarantees over those two years. It's unlikely he'd want to give that up. So the Bears might entice him to take a lower salary if they extended his contract, and guaranteed him new money. Let's use Terrell Suggs as an example. In 2014, the Baltimore Ravens signed him to a four-year extension worth $20.7 million. That may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind that $16 million of that new money was guaranteed. This allowed him to get a hefty payday while the team kept his salary cap hit low. Suggs was 32 at the time. Remember that Houston is 30.

So here's how the Bears could do it:

• 2019 - $5 million base salary fully guaranteed ($250,000 workout bonus)
• 2020 - $5 million base salary fully guaranteed ($250,000 workout bonus)
• 2021 - $6 million base salary becomes guaranteed one week into league year ($250,000 workout bonus)
• 2022 - $6 million base salary ($250,000 workout bonus)

Doing this would give Houston $10 million in full guarantees with a chance at $6 million more in the third year if he performs well. For the Bears, this deal would drop his 2019 salary cap hit to a far more manageable $10.85 million. It's still a lot for them to absorb, but at that point, it becomes far more feasible for Pace to create enough space to make it work while still handling in-house free agents and the draft. Suddenly the Bears would have Khalil Mack and Houston on the edge with Leonard Floyd as a third edge weapon and Akiem Hicks in the middle. Who's going to stop that? This is just one example too. There are several ways Pace could work that to his advantage, provided Houston is open to the idea.