The Eric Berry conundrum
By John McCarty
Free agency every offseason is a chapter of intrigue, want, excitement and frustration. Arm chair general managers across the country take aim at the player or players they believe will take their beloved team to the promise land. The draft, an event as ridiculous as any, has become a beacon of hope for fans coming out of the cold of the winter, a spring of hope for fans.
For Kansas City Chiefs fans this year, that rings as true as it ever has, both in free agency and the draft. However, one name headlines the Chiefs offseason more then any other; Eric Berry.
The biggest question that has to be answered, and this is a question that general manager John Dorsey and the rest of the Chiefs front office has to wrestle with, is what exactly is Berry worth. It’s a complicated question, and within the question lies the truth of just what Berry is as a player.
As was previously written in this column, Berry and his representatives will likely be asking for a contract in the neighborhood of five years at $9.5 million per ($47.5 million total) with roughly $25 million in guarantees. Keep that in mind for the rest of the discussion here… $9.5 million per season.
We will first compare Berry’s on field performance against other safeties in his draft class first, the 2010 class.
Next: Best comparisons...