The deadline for the Kansas City Chiefs to sign franchise tagged Eric Berry to a long-term contract is on this Friday, July 15. If they don’t sign him that doesn’t mean they will lose him, it just means Berry can’t sign a long-term deal until after the season
There’s been a report that Berry and the Chiefs have not had much back and forth lately, which makes you concerned. That should also sound familiar because we heard similar things last year about Justin Houston ... right before he signed his long-term deal.
If we go back to last year, Houston was also tagged, didn’t sign it and skipped all offseason practices like Berry did. Pro Football Talk was pushing this notion that another team would give up two first round picks and get Houston from the Chiefs if they didn’t match it (which rarely, rarely happens). That’s how tense it seemed to be between the two sides. There were other reports that they were nowhere near a deal. The typical stuff you hear during negotiations.
Things changed days before the deadline. It was reported days before the deadline that the two sides were going to start talking again. And then there were reports there was a 50-50 shot for a deal to be done. And then it was Houston and the Chiefs were the “most optimistic” of reaching a deal of all the franchise players. And then it was “significant progress”.
And then he actually agreed to a contract and the drama was over.
That’s what we can hope happens with Eric Berry. If you don’t believe me, check out Chiefs GM John Dorsey’s quote from May: "This is gonna be a slow process with Eric. It's gonna be a process kinda like Justin last year. We'll continue to have some conversations and dialogue."
Dorsey has made deadline deals before. The reports from last year and this year are similar - they’re not talking right now, they’re far apart, etc.
At the end of the day though, this one makes too much sense not to get done. The Chiefs want to keep him, Berry wants to stay, the fans want him and the Chiefs need the cap space. Let’s just wait and see on Friday.