The Bears will place edge rusher Lamarr Houston on injured reserve with the intention of reaching an injury settlement, tweets Tom Pelissero of USA Today.
Houston, who has torn his ACL twice in the past, doesn’t have any structural damage to his knee this time around, per Pelissero, but he’ll go on IR nonetheless. An injury settlement would pay Houston for the time it takes him to recover, and allow him to sign with any club when the settlement timetable expires.
Long an underrated player with the Raiders, Houston hasn’t been able to contribute much after inking a five-year, $35MM contract with Chicago prior to the 2014 campaign. In three seasons with the Bears, the 30-year-old Houston has appeared in just 26 of a possible 48 games and made only 10 starts. He’s managed nine total sacks in Chicago, but eight of those came in 2015, his only healthy year with the Bears.
Chicago will create $6MM in cap room by releasing Houston, but it will also incur nearly $1MM in dead money in each of the next two seasons.