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.
A bone spur is extremely painful. Short term, Berry could play for a week or two but then he’d barely be able to walk for a month afterwards. The Chiefs could tune Berry up for a two week playoff stint
Otherwise, a bone spur needs rest for two to three years to settle. Even then Berry will be slightly hobbled for life. Surgery has less than 50% success ratio.
These bone spurs come from poorly fitting shoes, excessive use of said shoes and ignoring pain. Ignoring pain is a great attribute of NFL players and long distance runners. Hence the prevalence of such injuries among very capable athletes.
I have bone spurs in my spine
and they are caused by injuries to the said areas
and then they become calcified
and are very painful indeed!
Love Berry, he’s been through do much in his career and life. That said the Chiefs have to part ways after the season. He’s way to costly to have counting against the cap if he can’t perform. I hate it but it’s a business and the job is to win.