Chiefs Officially Use Franchise Tag On S Eric Berry

Update:

Adam Schefter reports that the Chiefs officially have placed franchise tag on safety Eric Berry.

———-

Rand Getlin of NFL Media reports that the Chiefs are planning to use their franchise tag on S Eric Berry before today’s deadline.

• According to Getlin, both the Chiefs and Berry’s reps are interested in working on a long-term contract.

The franchise tag would run the Chiefs $10.806 million fully guaranteed for the 2016 season, but won’t prevent them from negotiating a long-term deal that would reduce this figure and offer them some additional cap space

Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt has made it clear that they plan to “do everything we can” to re-sign him a few weeks ago.

“Certainly, Eric is somebody that’s very important to the franchise,” Hunt said, via the Kansas City Star. “Coach (Andy) Reid and his staff think highly of him. They appreciate the leader that he’s become, and obviously personally, he had the amazing year overcoming cancer. We’ll do everything we can to try to bring him back.”

“There’s no way that anybody who is involved in professional sports wouldn’t appreciate what he did this year and overcoming what he did and what it took to do that,” Hunt added. “You just add that to his natural leadership abilities, and he certainly was important to the team.”

Berry, 27, worked his way back from Hodgkin’s lymphoma and managed to produce an impressive 2015 season. He’s now in position to be one of the best available players in the free agent market, which should net him an impressive contract.

In 2015, Berry appeared in all 16 games and recorded 61 tackles, two interceptions, and 10 pass defenses for the Chiefs. Pro Football Focus has him rated as the No. 4 safety out of 88 qualifying players.

We have him featured in our Top 100 – 2016 Free Agents list.