How will key injured players return for the Kansas City Chiefs?

Eric Berry

The most impactful player on the defensive side, Berry will be the biggest return for the Chiefs in 2018. Like Conley, Berry had an Achilles injury, tearing his Achilles tendon in the very first game of the season against New England. It was as if Kansas City lost its quarterback of the defense, its fearless leader.

Losing Berry played a large part in the Chiefs’ defensive struggles this past season, as Berry has always been the guy who brings everyone together. Not having that kind of guy around is difficult for a team to be able to overcome, especially when that guy has inspired so many people on and off the field.

Berry has been through his fair share of injuries, and there’s no telling when the time will come when he simply won’t be able to fully recover. However, Eric Berry came back in a big way in 2015, after miraculously overcoming Hodgkin’s lymphoma and returning to his pro bowl-caliber form. Berry won comeback player of the year in 2015, recording 61 tackles and 2 interceptions. After another productive season in 2016, in which Berry recorded 77 tackles and 4 interceptions, Berry was primed to help lead the Chiefs to another postseason run in 2017. However, his torn Achilles tendon hindered him from seeing the field.

Fans love a good comeback story, and Eric Berry has one of the best ones out there. But you have to wonder how many times a player can come back from injury.

Berry will certainly come back and help out a depleted Chiefs secondary, as they will need as much help as they can get. But how will Berry respond to yet another setback in his football career? His work ethic is no question what defines who he is as a player, but there’s only so much a player can do as your body is aging.

Regardless of what anyone says (and even what this article says), Berry will come back to the Chiefs and leave his heart out on the field just as he’s always done. Whether the result is the same great player that we all have seen or if he takes a step back, Berry will always give everything he has.