Why is Lance Zeirlein such a good NFL writer? He can rip off great little stories like this one, where he runs through all the possible reasons why Houston cut Eric Winston. One that he didn't list?
↵↵↵I don’t believe that cutting Eric Winston was a good "football decision"…. at least not entirely. Clearly, the Texans needed to shave salary to get underneath the salary cap. By cutting Winston, they accomplished that. However, I’m not sure why the Texans didn’t go to Winston to restructure his deal. They wouldn’t have saved as much with a restructure, but they could have kept their offensive line together.
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LZ makes some great points about possibilities, including Mario re-signing, Peyton coming to town, paying Duane Brown and others Go read it and then get back to me.
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One little note that LZ drops (and that he'd already put on Twitter) is that Houston is not close to either Chris Myers or Mike Brisiel. So, with Winston gone, the Texans could have up to three new starters on their offensive line next season. Everyone has said the same thing about Houston's offensive line post-Winston cut: stability is very important to the Texans' running game success. Losing that many guys will affect how well they run next season.
↵Which is why I really think they'll keep one of their free agents in Myers or Brisiel. They can't afford to lose that many guys, can they?
↵I guess we'll see in less than an hour.
↵For more information on the Texans as free agency approaches, check out our Texans Free Agency StoryStream here. For more informaiton on the NFL's free agency craziness, check out SB Nation's NFL site.
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