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The loss of Eric Berry for the entire 2011 Kansas City Chiefs is an incredible blow to the team. I don't think I'm overreacting here. This is a major, major loss for the Chiefs.
Todd Haley and the Chiefs are going to give us the "Next man up" speech and, while that's true, it doesn't fully recognize how important Berry was to the Chiefs.
Earlier this summer, the KC Star reported on a few playing time stats for the Chiefs and the headline was this one: Out of the Chiefs 1,065 defensive snaps last year, Berry was on the field for every one.
Every. Single. One.
It's not just because of what Berry means to the team, which is a lot, it's about who's behind him. The Chiefs depth at safety was talked about throughout training camp and the preseason and....well, look for yourself:
SS: Eric Berry, Jon McGraw, Donald Washington
FS: Kendrick Lewis, Sabby Piscitelli
They're going to have some trouble replacing him. OK, a lot of trouble.