Former Chiefs who surprisingly remain available in free agency
The Chiefs have either not re-signed or parted ways with several players this offseason. Of those players, who has yet to find a new team?
There has been uncharacteristically high turnover for the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason. They have parted ways with coaches and players alike, all in an attempt to remake a Super Bowl competitor into a Super Bowl champion.
We are now nearly a month into free agency, which officially began on March 13th. At this point, the players left available are usually lower tier. Surprisingly, there are still some quality ex-Chiefs who have yet to find a new home.
Eric Berry
One of the surprise cuts this offseason was Eric Berry. While he has battled injuries on a yearly basis for several years now, he had been with the organization for so long it seemed he could weather the Bob Sutton firing. Unfortunately, this was not the case.
Berry was an All-Pro player for the Chiefs for several years. During his nine year career with the Chiefs he played in 89 games, made 445 combined tackles, broke up 50 passes, and had 14 interceptions resulting in five touchdowns. He made the Pro-Bowl five times and was named First-Team All Pro three times.
While his statistics and accolades are impressive, they arguably could have been considerably more so. In four of his nine seasons with the Chiefs, Berry played a combined 10 games. Essentially, he achieved all of this in five and a half seasons. So, why hasn’t another team picked him up?
The obvious reason is his injury history. After missing most of this past season due to a reported Haglund’s Deformity, Berry shocked everyone by deciding he would not have offseason surgery. While he claimed to be healthy and ready to play in 2019, the Chiefs were clearly not sold and decided to part ways.
It’s likely that other teams are extremely cautious as well. The Dallas Cowboys had Berry in for a lengthy visit, but decided to go with the less talented, but less risky choice of George Iloka. The Cleveland Browns are reportedly interested, and the John Dorsey connection makes this a reasonable probability, but they have yet to make a move.
It will be interesting to see who he signs with, but I’m betting that nothing happens until after the NFL draft. Odds are, a team who was unable to resolve their need at safety in the draft will take a flyer on Berry and offer him a one-year, prove it deal. At this point, I think that’s the best he will get in 2019.