The Kansas City Chiefs have a number of significant decisions to make on defense in the coming month, among them being whether or not to keep Justin Houston at his current price. Decisions on Houston and other players should come soon enough, but not before new defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo has a chance to determine where he sees the current personnel fitting within his system.

Spagnuolo, who was hired by the Chiefs in January to replace fired coordinator Bob Sutton, began work in Kansas City this week, according to general manager Brett Veach. At the moment, Spagnuolo is in the process of evaluating the defensive personnel, and then from there meetings will take place to decide the course of action the team will take on Houston and other players. Veach was asked about Houston during an interview on Sports Radio 810 in Kansas City on Thursday, to which he responded by alluding to the process Spagnuolo and Veach's staff will be going through in the days ahead.

"The cool thing with having a new staff member as a coordinator is Steve is actually in there cranking tape as we speak and he’s going to put a fresh set of eyes on everything he sees and certainly we’ll have some schematic changes to our defense," Veach told Soren Petro of 810. "He’ll do so without any kind of interjection from me or my staff. It’s going to be a pure evaluation from him. Then when Steve through his assessment of what he thinks, we’ll certainly come in and share our thoughts and opinions with him, and then factor in all the contract stuff, money stuff, what we have, what we can do, and kind of see where we need to be and what plan of action would be best. That’s going to happen here in the next week or two before we get to the combine."

Houston is due to take up a team-high $21.1 million in cap space next season with a base salary of $15.25 million. He had a quality season in 2018, posting nine sacks, five forced fumbles and an interception while being graded as one of the top 100 players in the league by Pro Football Focus. He's also one of the clear team leaders on defense. But he also missed four games due to injury in 2018, has had health issues in previous seasons, has reached age 30, and hasn't been selected to a Pro Bowl since 2015. Veach told reporters during a conference call Thursday that Houston was "a huge part" of what the Chiefs do (per Nate Taylor/The Athletic) but hasn't been approached yet about a possible restructure.

The Chiefs can save $14 million in cap space by letting Houston go, which has led to the belief he could be a candidate to be a cap casualty at some point. That decision should come soon, and if it winds up being one that sends Houston elsewhere, Veach is confident the Chiefs will be able to find a way to compensate.

"We have some tough decisions to make – we know that – but we also feel really good about some young guys we have and certainly having a first-round pick and two twos and a three," Veach told 810. "I can’t remember the last time we had picks in all three rounds, so that’s exciting. But again, we have enough maneuverability within the cap to do some certain things, and we’re excited about our plan moving forward and looking forward to tackling the offseason and this draft."