Latest On Eric Berry’s Status

Eric Berry is almost certain to miss Monday night’s game in Denver. The Chiefs listed their top defender as doubtful for Week 4. The last time he suited up for practice was August 11.

A heel problem’s limited Berry during this time, and he’ll soon have missed a fourth of the Chiefs’ season — a year after missing 15 games. While the three-time All-Pro safety tore his left Achilles’ tendon in 2017, the heel problem is on his right foot.

The 29-year-old defender is battling a bone spur condition known as Haglund’s deformity, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com reports. Haglund’s causes pain in the Achilles area.

Some guys have been able to play with it — you get a shoe here or there, you can adjust … but that’s what’s going on,” Garafolo said during an appearance on the NFL Network’s Good Morning Football (via the Kansas City Star’s Brooke Pryor). “It’s going to be a pain-management thing. It’s not like this thing will tear the Achilles necessarily. A lot of these cases don’t result in a tear, but that’s why with Berry right now, he has not played, and (the Chiefs have) been doing OK. That’s going to allow them a little bit more patience with Berry, but it is extremely painful.”

Andy Reid did not confirm this diagnosis, but it can be safely presumed the Chiefs won’t have Berry against the Broncos.

Berry has surmounted much worse conditions in his career, heroically overcoming a 2014 cancer diagnosis to re-emerge as a first-team All-Pro in 2015 and 2016. He also suffered a torn ACL in 2011, so for all of Berry’s accomplishments, he’s missed a substantial amount of time during his career.

The Chiefs have started Eric Murray and the recently reacquired Ron Parker at safety this season. Their defense, which also lost All-Pro Marcus Peters this offseason, has not fared well. It ranks last in DVOA. The Chiefs are nonetheless 3-0 behind their explosive offense and have been able to exercise patience with Berry. An IR stay would force him to miss at least two months.

Kansas City’s been connected to an Earl Thomas trade, but considering Berry is making a safety-most $13MM per year ($13MM 2018 cap number), the Seahawks’ three-time All-Pro safety’s $10MM-AAV price ($10.4MM 2018 cap figure) would make for a rather extreme cap percentage devoted to safeties in the event of a trade.

View Comments (6)