Kansas City Chiefs: Eric Berry Contract Holdup Is Troubling

One would’ve expected the Kansas City Chiefs to move quickly to sign Pro Bowl safety Eric Berry long-term. They haven’t, and that’s interesting.

There is no doubting that Berry is still one of the best in football. Fresh off recovering from a battle with cancer, he produced his fourth Pro Bowl in 2015 with 61 tackles, two interceptions and 10 passes defended. The Chiefs won their first playoff game since 1994. It’s hard to see any reason why they wouldn’t want to keep him. Save for the big one of course:  money.

Berry undoubtedly believes he deserves to be the highest-paid safety in football. With good reason. His stats and accomplishments speak for themselves. The problem is the Chiefs are in a bit of a financial bind at the moment. They are barely under the salary cap as it is and aren’t projected to gain much wiggle room in 2017 either. Overthecap.com has it being around $4.4 million. Keep in mind that’s assuming Berry is not on the roster.

Thus the question must be asked. Are the Chiefs thinking about life without him? Berry can’t seem to fathom that idea as he’d bewildered by the lack of progress in contract talks.

"“I thought it would progress a little bit more, but it’s still been pretty much the same since the last time we talked,” Berry said, via Herbie Teope of ChiefsDigest.com. “A lot can change in a week; a lot can change from whenever the deadline is.”“Obviously, I would love to be a Chief,” Berry said. “I want to be a Chief long-term just because of the community, the staff, from top to bottom, the players and everything.“That’s what I’m really focused on, but sometimes things don’t go as planned and I’m prepared for that. But, hopefully, it goes as planned and I’m prepared for that, as well. So, that’s why I’m handling everything I can do on my end to make sure I don’t slip.”"

There is one other thing to note in this situation. Back in 2014, the Chiefs defense didn’t exactly fall apart when they lost him for the rest of the season. They still finished 2nd in points allowed and 7th in yards allowed. In the 10 games he missed they allowed more than 20 points just twice and gave up less than 14 a total of five times. So the it’s possible the team brass has it in their heads that they may not need to pay out big money to keep Berry since the unit was just as good without him as with him.

Perhaps it’s just an overblown idea and things will get worked out before the July 15th deadline. Then again if it doesn’t? That should raise a ton of eyebrows about the future of Eric Berry with the Kansas City Chiefs.