Eric Winston Respects Kansas City Chiefs for Releasing Him

Eric Winston was cut by the Kansas City Chiefs earlier this week and it came as a bit of a shock to some Chiefs fans. However, Winston himself wasn’t completely blind-sided by his release and when speaking on 610 KSCP-AM in Kansas City, the offensive tackle went as far as to say he understands and respects the Chiefs for releasing him and says he’s a free agent because of philosophy and not performance.

“I think it’s just more of a philosophical thing,” Winston Friday morning. “I’m just assuming, from the way the draft’s shaping up and then they decided to hold onto Branden Albert, it looks like they’ll probably end up taking a tackle. And if that’s where they go, you’re not gonna pay three guys a bunch of money. So if this draft maybe was different, maybe my situation would be different, or if they decided to let Branden test the free-agent market, maybe it would have been different that way.”

Winston says that he doesn’t blame the Chiefs for wanting to release him and actually respects the fact that they were upfront about his status with the team and says the Chiefs handled everything the way teams should.

“You can never tell with these kinds of things. I think there’s more of a philosophical thing going in a different direction. They probably wanted to go a little younger, and I respect that,” said Winston. “A lot of teams sometimes aren’t up-front about it, they were up-front. I thought they did it the right way, and I have no problems with them.”

A lot has been made about Branden Albert’s situation and the fact that the Chiefs may ask him to switch positions. Winston says he was never asked to switch positions on the offensive line before his release and thinks it’s in the Chiefs best interest to keep Albert where he is right now.

“If I’m them, I’m keeping Branden as a left tackle. … And if they draft somebody then you probably plug them at right tackle.”

Both the Houston Texans and Philadelphia Eagles have been in contact with Winston’s agent since his release and the Miami Dolphins are also a favored landing spot for the tackle.