Eric Berry returns to the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice facility

A revelating and exciting report was released on Tuesday afternoon, with reports that star safety Eric Berry had returned to the Kansas City Chiefs’ practice facility.

Safety Eric Berry has not practiced for the Kansas City Chiefs since August 11th, 2018. It has been 108 days since Berry has practiced, and 446 days since he last played in an NFL game. Given his extended injury history over the past few years, which includes a courageous battle with cancer, the hopes are that he’s finally ready to make another long-awaited return soon for the Chiefs.

Terez Paylor, formerly of the Kansas City Star and current senior NFL writer for Yahoo! Sports, broke the news that Berry reported to the Chiefs’ training facility today with the intent to practice. This does necessarily mean that we will see Berry play in Week 13 against the Oakland Raiders, however. That’s probably for the best, considering the Raiders play on a baseball field—not exactly an ideal field for Berry to make his return on.

Regardless, even having Berry practice this week would be a huge step in the right direction. With a struggling defense that has slowly started to come together in recent weeks, aside from the Week 11 game against the Los Angeles Rams, being able to rally around Berry will be huge. In addition, any move that allows Berry to start to work himself into shape to actually play and to develop chemistry with new teammates is a good thing.

Berry has remained on the active roster as of late, avoiding a slot on injured reserve. This means the Chiefs intended for him to play sometime this season, even if it was toward the end of it. While the odds of him playing this week are still 50/50—or more so 25/75 against—perhaps Chiefs fans can rest a little easier knowing the star safety will be back very soon.