The Morning Fix: Eric Berry Edition

Source: Arrowhead Addict-Parick Allen

“If you stay entrenched in one way of thinking over a long period of time,” general manager Scott Pioli says, “and/or you think you have all the answers and don’t listen to other people and pay attention to trends that are changing in the league, you may set yourself up for failure. So, yes, a lot of time we spent on that.”

That should sound great to Chiefs fans. It’s the forward thinking the franchise signed up for. Pioli and owner Clark Hunt are 45 years old. Head coach Todd Haley is 43. That’s the second-youngest power triangle in the NFL, which means the Chiefs aren’t as likely to feel confined by what’s been done before them.

At one point, taking a safety fifth overall was stupid. Now it makes sense. NFL rules are pushing the league’s passing numbers higher and higher.

“I don’t think we were going to let a lot of things take us out of that, to pigeon-hole ourselves,” Haley says. “The game’s a little different. When you look at some of the numbers around the league … you better have some guys who defend the pass.

Chiefs defy draft convention again by picking Berry-KC Star.com

Eric Berry is smart, mature, talented and comes from a solid family.

Actually that’s a boring summary. Eric Berry is freakishly talented and blessed with uncanny maturity and football instincts.

How about this? He’s Terrell Owens with brains and class.

When Chiefs coach Todd Haley emerged from Kansas City’s draft room, Haley shared a bit of insight into Berry’s character, relating how Berry had helped the Tennessee equipment managers shine helmets on Fridays before games.

If Tim Tebow had legitimate NFL talent, you might compare him to Eric Berry.

This was a great pick. Berry and Nebraska defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh were the only can’t-miss prospects in this draft. Only an injury will stop Berry from being a 10-year starter in the NFL.

When you’re drafting at No. 5 and you’re forced to dump millions of guaranteed dollars on a kid, you want a sure thing and a player you believe can handle the money.

If you watched the draft on the NFL Network or ESPN, you might have noticed how many players were wearing huge diamond bracelets, huge diamond watches and huge diamond earrings.

Before they signed an NFL contract, many of the players had already gone $100,000 in debt so they could sport the “right” look on draft night.

For the Chiefs, Berry is the ideal choice-KC Star.com

The Chiefs still have needs at wide receiver, tight end and linebacker, among other places

“When you have the type of year we had, you have a lot of needs,” Haley said. “We went through the process with the staff and at times we had to laugh about it: ‘We could use this and we could use this.’ But you’ve got to narrow it down, and you’ve got to try to take the guy you think can help you the most.”

Haley and the Chiefs are happy to wait until today to attack their other needs after choosing Berry, a 6-foot, 211-pound safety.

Safety was arguably the biggest hole on their roster. Among established players, they have only Jarrad Page, who missed much of last season because of injury, and Jon McGraw, mainly a special-teams player.

Berry, who declared for the draft after his junior season at Tennessee, had 14 interceptions in his three collegiate seasons.

The pick differs from last year’s selection of defensive end Tyson Jackson in the first round. The Chiefs expected Jackson would need time to grow into the position.

Not so for Berry, who has been compared to Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu and Baltimore’s Ed Reed for his ability to affect a game as a safety.

“I watched a lot of film on Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu,” Berry said. “I just try to take both of them and try to make my own kind of safety. I just try to look and see the way they attack ball carriers, the way they disguise the plays, the way that they use their instincts to make plays. I like the way they play the game.”

Chiefs expect top pick Berry to make immediate impact-KC Star

It was a big day for the new GM-coach combo with Seattle in John Schneider and Pete Carroll.

And it started out very good for the Seahawks thanks to the Chiefs decision to pass on OT Russell Okung (left) at the fifth slot, drafting instead Tennessee safety Eric Berry.

The Seattle draft room watched the Chiefs move with some anxiety, especially offensive line coach Alex Gibbs, who definitely wanted to put Okung in a Seahawks uniform.

“I was scared to death because I know the line coach there (Chiefs OL coach Bill Muir) very well and he wanted this kid as bad, or worse, than I did,” Gibbs told the Tacoma News-Tribune. “And he didn’t get him. So we quickly texted him and said, ‘Ha, ha,’ and all that good stuff. We’re all in the same community and we all think together so that’s kind of the way it is.”

Seattle has to go down as the gold medal winner in the first round, getting Okung and then adding Texas safety Earl Thomas with the 14th pick. Okung was considered the best offensive lineman in the Class of ‘10, while Thomas was thought by some to be the equal if not better than Berry as a safety. Carroll also went for Thomas rather than his former Southern Cal safety Taylor Mays.

Thoughts on Draft Day #1 … Friday Cup O’Chiefs-BobGretz.com

The work ethic that lifted Eric Berry into the position as a top NFL draft choice was learned on hot summer days in his native Georgia. He made $5.50 an hour painting houses with his father.

“It was very hard, especially outside during the summertime and it was like 96 degrees and you would be on the ladder at 12 noon and the sun was beating down on you,” Berry remembered. “But that definitely showed me why the lights were on in our house.”

Now, Berry can pay for the electric bill … heck, he can pay the mortgage for his mother and father Carol and James Berry and his younger twin brothers. He’s going to have millions of dollars to spend as the fifth player selected in the 2010 NFL Draft.

Berry’s Intangibles Make Him Tangible Choice-BobGretz.com

Eric Berry Press Conference-Arrowhead Addict

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