Brian Cushing Released by Texans After 9 Years with Team

The Houston Texans have released linebacker Brian Cushing, the team announced:

John McClain of the Houston Chronicle first reported the news on Sunday.

"It's all good. It's just part of the business," Cushing texted McClain when he learned of his imminent release on Sunday.

Cushing, 31, appeared in just five games for the Texans in 2017 after serving a 10-game suspension for violating the league's substance-abuse policy. He registered 16 tackles and 1.5 sacks. "When he was on the field, he didn't look like the same guy on film," wrote The MMQB's Andy Benoit, who added, "Burst gone, playmaking absent."

The first-round pick of the Texans in 2009 accumulated 664 tackles (making him Houston's all-time leader in that category), 13.5 sacks and nine forced fumbles in his career and was named the 2009 Defensive Rookie of the Year, also playing in the Pro Bowl that year.

But a series of injuries and his two suspensions for using banned substances kept Cushing from ever becoming an elite linebacker, though he did accumulate 110 or more tackles in three seasons.

As McClain tweeted, "I've never covered a tougher player than Brian Cushing. Last year, he told me he had undergone surgery more than 20 times since he was the first-round pick in 2009."

With younger options in play and more cap flexibility with Cushing's salary off the books, however, his release from the Texans this offseason was inevitable.