Future murky in for Eric Berry, Eric Fisher and Dontari Poe
By John McCarty
However, when the Chiefs designated him with the franchise tag, they lost basically all leverage in negotiations, and now are stuck between a rock and a hard place. They want to keep Eric obviously, but it’s becoming obvious are not in a any rush to offer him numbers approaching what he’s asking for. If a long-term deal does get done, the complication is that while Berry will carry a low cap number for this season (which at this point really is moot) he’ll carry a much larger number in 2016 and going forward.
In fact, a great template for an Eric Berry deal would be the Jeremy Maclin contract. A length of five years with an average payout of 11 per with $25M in total guarantees. Maclin’s cap number in 2015 was $3.5M, whereas this season it jumps to $12.4.
I’d expect a deal with Berry to be in this ballpark, and this is why a deal hasn’t been reached, at least yet. Hard to fathom or justify giving that much money to a safety, especially a safety that doesn’t create turnovers.
I would still put odds that the Chiefs and Berry reach a deal, I won’t be surprised if Berry plays the 2016 season on the franchise tag, and goes into free agency next year, knowing the Chiefs can’t franchise him unless they want to be on the hook for $13 million. While replacing the man will be impossible should the Chiefs decide to move on after this season, replacing the player, or most of it, won’t be as difficult.
Next: Wrapping it up