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 dirk digler:
All it is a pain management issue. If he couldn't go at anytime in the first half of the season they should have just put him on IR so he could have had the surgery.
John Wall played with this same exact issue for 5 seasons until he couldn't handle it anymore and had surgery. Berry should have done the same.
I'm beginning to believe that Berry refuses to take painkillers.
Not saying its right or he should do that but its the only thing that makes sense. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JakeF:
I think that the loss of Watkins significantly changed our offense. Watkins kept defenses from doubling Kelce and Hill at the same time. Golden Tate would have provided the same protection.
I look back and see how our offense changed when Watkins and LDT got hurt. We were still productive but it was much more of a struggle. Then we lost Kareem Hunt. More and more was being dumped on the back of Mahomes.
Our offense is still great but it would be much smoother with a strong #2 receiver.
One positive about losing Watkins was how it sped up the development of Mahomes. He had to learn how to carry our team very early on.
Oh my. Watkins was injured in the Browns game which was after the trade deadline. Do you even try to make logical arguments? [Reply]
Originally Posted by UChieffyBugger:
If folks want him cut then that's their business. But to suggest he should be used "until he snaps" and then "thrown in the trash" is straight gutter talk to me. They don't look at these players as humans imo, they are there to entertain and then thrown away like garbage. It's pitiful and much of the fans "love" for these players is fake as fuck :-)
Eric Berry already got his fucking money when he was a goddamn rookie. That contract was fucking huge. Then he got cancer and we continued to pay his salary when we didn't have to. It's great that he roared back in his recovery and all, but Dorsey was clearly aware of what cancer does to a body. He wanted to protect the franchise and the business, which he's supposed to do. Unfortunately for him, he decided to do it against a cancer survivor, and that got him fired.
So Berry gets even more money. Lots of it. Guaranteed. He didn't need that 5 year deal. He didn't need ALL of that guaranteed money. But he sure as fuck put up a fuss about it after how he was supposedly mistreated by the franchise. He got it, and then this shit happened to him. His body broke down.
When football (and all sports, really) are such a team game, yeah, you'd like to side with the players, but every time a guy gets paid, it takes away the flexibility to acquire other great players who can help us win more games. Playoff games, specifically. Home playoff games where 90% of the fanbase would mud wrestle their own grandmothers for a home playoff win, particularly against a team that just so happens to wreck their shit in agonizing ways.
And when a guy GOT paid in his rookie deal, and got paid when the team didn't have to, and then threw a tantrum until he got paid again LONGTERM, and when the shit we were afraid of paying him for actually happened, business is handled in this cryptic "day-to-day" way when the defense is absolute fucking dogshit and could (and probably will) cost us a Super Bowl victory...
Well, fans get sick of that shit. At that point, the player who deserved to get paid (even though he already got his money) loses their respect. If he were just on the field but his play quality had gone down a couple notches (like Houston) there wouldn't be the backlash. Instead, we get tweets about his spirit and the same coaches "day to day" line. He didn't play 95% of the fucking season and we were told "day-to-day". And he can't even retire without still fucking us over capwise.
That's how bullshit his contract was. He hung out the franchise who cared for him out to fucking dry. Yeah, the NFL is a business, BUT HE ALREADY GOT HIS FUCKING MONEY. Berry was flat-out vindictive in that contract Clark negotiated.
He's not gonna be back. If he does get this thing fixed and is his old self again, great, but at this point, not even Marcellus is predicting that will happen.
He lost my respect. He's financially comfortable. He's cancer-free. So excuse fucking me for comparing him to a tool or a machine that's just about at the end of its usefulness and needs to be thrown away. But that's basically what his career is now. [Reply]
What if Reid is pulling the old rope-a-dope with Berry just to throw off the Colts game planning? I would assume that game planning for the Chiefs with Berry and without Berry are two different things? That's something ol' Belicheck would do! [Reply]
Originally Posted by phisherman:
What if Reid is pulling the old rope-a-dope with Berry just to throw off the Colts game planning? I would assume that game planning for the Chiefs with Berry and without Berry are two different things? That's something ol' Belicheck would do!
Originally Posted by phisherman:
What if Reid is pulling the old rope-a-dope with Berry just to throw off the Colts game planning? I would assume that game planning for the Chiefs with Berry and without Berry are two different things? That's something ol' Belicheck would do!
