Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry is not practicing Wednesday, the second day of work as the team prepares to take on the Indianapolis Colts on Saturday afternoon in the AFC’s divisional round.
Berry missed practice on Friday, December 28, before he was eventually held out of the Chiefs’ final game of the season against the Oakland Raiders. Berry practiced limitedly to start this week on Tuesday, which many felt was a good sign, but he could not participate on Wednesday as he deals with his lingering heel injury.
“It’s difficult from the standpoint of he’s a real critical part of our team,” defensive coordinator Bob Sutton said when asked about the uncertainty surrounding the three-time All-Pro. “He’s an outstanding player. He’s one of our true leaders, the guys rally around him, so I think that part is always hard. You get caught up in different things in the season. But also, if you stick back for a second, you say, ‘Man, this is really hard on this guy, too, as a player. This is something he loves to do. He’s been really good at it, and as difficult as it is on us as a defensive unit or us as a team, I think for him, it’s really challenging.’
“So it’s just what it is. There’s not a lot you can do about it, and every week we’ve got our fingers crossed and hope that he can make it back and go. It’s truly—I know you guys get tired of hearing this—it really is a day to day to day thing here right now, the way it’s playing out. You just got to stay in there and go and figure out how to get other guys ready in case he can’t go.”
Berry was originally held out of the Chiefs’ first 13 games with what the team described as a sore heel, though reports, which have never been confirmed (nor denied) said Berry has what is called a “Haglund’s deformity.”
Berry eventually returned to the lineup to play 30 snaps Week 15 against the Los Angeles Chargers and played 69 snaps Week 16 against the Seattle Seahawks before what has appeared to be some sort of setback.
Sutton was asked Wednesday about who would replace Berry and linebacker Dorian O’Daniel, who hasn’t practiced at all this week, if they couldn’t play against the Colts.
Without Berry in a must-win game against the Raiders when it came to playoff home-field advantage, the safety snap count breakdown was as follows: Daniel Sorensen (63), Eric Murray (33), Jordan Lucas (32) and Ron Parker (6).
In the above breakdown, it is important to note that Sorensen and Lucas earned the start. Lucas suffered a stinger, and the Chiefs eventually removed starters in a 35-3 blowout.
It remains to be seen who the Chiefs start against the Colts if Berry cannot play once again.
A note on Dorian O’Daniel
#Chiefs special teams coordinator Dave Toub on LB Dorian O’Daniel, who has missed two practices this week: “He’s a four-phase starter for us. He’s an important guy, so we’re keeping an eye on that one, pretty close.”
“I wouldn’t tell you,” he initially said with a smile. “We have to work guys in, obviously, and just see where guys are. The one good thing is you’re at the point of the season where if you do have to miss some reps and you get better toward to the end of the week, this is probably the time to do it. We just have to kind of roll guys through, which we try to do, anyway, but when you have a guy in question, you have to say, ‘OK,’ because that usually affects somebody else.
“Sometimes that affects special teams ... It’s going to affect Dave (Toub) and what he’s putting together, so you got to kind of stay on top of that as a total staff, too. But we just got to slide and we’ve got some different options, but we kind of have to wait and see where it’s at.” [Reply]
Originally Posted by OKchiefs:
The exact same heel was sore in 2017 training camp. If you're too dense to see the signioor relevance of that then I can't help you. His heel issues were known well before 2018 and he or the team didn't do their due diligence to make sure he was physically ready and capable.
OK then, what should they have done different? Whats this due diligence you speak of?
Like I said earlier I think where they fucked up was franchising him instead of getting him cheaper sooner and being another year along in the contract at this point which would make cutting bait even cheaper.
People forget he played on the franchise tag and had an All Pro season.
Oh yeah, it's definitely hindsight, no doubt about it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
What part of his heal wasn't sore going into TC do you not understand?
So he starts getting a sore heal in TC, you think they should have immediately scheduled him for season ending surgery? Seriously?
Had they done their due diligence, I'd say yes.
If he can't practice and it's been shown that time off won't heal it. Then all they've done is wasted precious time to heal and be ready next year.
John Wall has battled this for years supposedly but got to a point where it was too painful and they did surgery immediately. I'd say if Berry can't play, practice without pain... it's time.
Besides, how much can you really expect Berry to make an impact when he's on a snap count and has been out during the most critical times of games. Hasn't played most of the year and is obviously in pain. [Reply]
Originally Posted by htismaqe:
They should have never re-signed him. I wish that weren't true but it is. They should have let him walk, cancer or not.
The Chiefs were in a lose lose situation with Berry. Re-sign him and overpay the shit out of him. Or let him walk and get roasted by the fanbase and media for letting a cancer survivor walk. [Reply]
Chiefs gambled on whether to IR him or not...and they lost. He was going to get paid either way. It was a calculated move...I've never heard of a player missing an entire season over having a sore heel.
Would have been nice to get DAT back for the post-season. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Marcellus:
OK then, what should they have done different? Whats this due diligence you speak of?
I mean you obviously know, lets hear it.
Surgery should have been done a year ago while he was rehabbing the other foot. The heel issues are not new to Berry in 2018. He should have had repairs done to both feet. As I mentioned before, Troy Tulowitzki had repairs done on both feet, so don't tell me it's not possible to repair both at the same time. [Reply]
Originally Posted by The Pest:
The Chiefs were in a lose lose situation with Berry. Re-sign him and overpay the shit out of him. Or let him walk and get roasted by the fanbase and media for letting a cancer survivor walk.
Originally Posted by Iczer:
Had they done their due diligence, I'd say yes.
If he can't practice and it's been shown that time off won't heal it. Then all they've done is wasted precious time to heal and be ready next year.
John Wall has battled this for years supposedly but got to a point where it was too painful and they did surgery immediately. I'd say if Berry can't play, practice without pain... it's time.
Besides, how much can you really expect Berry to make an impact when he's on a snap count and has been out during the most critical times of games. Hasn't played most of the year and is obviously in pain.
Exactly.
Just an unfortunate situation. Shit happens. We just gotta move on and play football with the guys we have. [Reply]
I don't have a problem with seeing if it will heal, but once they got into October and it wasn't getting better, just go ahead and have surgery. [Reply]
Originally Posted by O.city:
I don't have a problem with seeing if it will heal, but once they got into October and it wasn't getting better, just go ahead and have surgery.
Originally Posted by BossChief:
Indy is going to score at will on our defense, imo.
Yep, their ability to both run and pass effectively will make it very difficult for our defense. They also don't make many mistakes either. They are going to score 40+. The Colts defense is just good enough to stop us every so often.
We need Watkins on offense and Houston, Jones, and Ford to bring a dominant pass rush to win. [Reply]