Should Chiefs be worried about Eric Berry?

The Kansas City Chiefs and safety Eric Berry have not been able to seal the deal with a long term contract, now the Pro-Bowl player is not planning to be at training camp.

We would like to think that in a perfect world players who get the franchise tag from their teams would go on to sign a long term deals. However, that is sometimes not the case. For this reason or that the Chiefs and their First-Team All-Pro safety Eric Berry did not get a deal reached before the tag deadline hit.

This situation is not ideal for either side. Now, it has reared an ugly head, in that the tag is still not signed by Berry, as well as, he is not coming to camp because of it. Normally when a player signs the tag he is still required to show up to training camp, but this is not the case for Eric. Since no tag has been signed he is not required to show up, when in most cases if the tag is signed there are fines for not showing up.

So should the Chiefs be worried about Berry not showing up?

Well in many ways yes. You have a player who has shown that he is worth top money, from a team who he has played for all his career. Berry made a miraculous comeback from cancer to hit the field in 2015, and play at a very high level. Now without knowing the details of what went down or even the initial offer given to Berry we can only speculate.

The Chiefs know he is worth the money, there is no doubt about it. But you have to look at it from a business side. KC is low on cap space, with Berry’s expected hit for the tag, this leaves very little room for the team. Even though we are heading into 2016, the team needs to look towards 2017 when another star player like Dontari Poe will command significant money to stay with the team, and as it stands it seems likely he will be gone next year.

So there is a sweet spot the team is looking for in terms of the deal to both satisfy Berry but also help keep the Chiefs in a good position for the future.

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