Carolina Panthers: Eric Berry could be a fit at safety
By Luke Tucker
Over the weekend, former Chiefs safety Eric Berry announced that he plans a return to football in 2020. Berry could be a huge addition for the Carolina Panthers.
Throughout the past decade, former Chief Eric Berry has been one of the best safeties in the entire NFL. A fifth-overall pick in the 2010 draft, Kansas City made Berry the highest-drafted safety since the Redskins selected the late Sean Taylor in 2004. Over his first nine seasons, Berry became a five-time Pro Bowler, a three-time All-Pro, and overcame cancer to become the 2015 Comeback Player of the Year. Despite being one of the most dominant safeties in recent memory, Berry and long-time teammate Justin Houston became cap casualties following the end of the 2018 season.
Perhaps the one thing that has prevented Berry’s career from being Hall-of-Fame worthy at this point is his health. He has played in all 16 regular-season games just four times since 2010. The former Chief and Tennessee Volunteer played just one game in 2011 due to a torn ACL, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in December of 2014, and played in just three regular-season games across the 2017 and 2018 seasons because of a nagging Achilles injury. Clearly, Berry has been suffered an immense amount of wear-and-tear throughout the first nine years of his NFL career. As a result, he understandably decided to take the 2019 campaign off–despite having teams interested in him–to get right physically and mentally.
Entering the 2020 offseason, Carolina already has some decisions to make at safety. Berry could help answer those questions.
As the Panthers roll into the offseason and begin to prepare for the upcoming season, their first order of business is free agency. The 2020 free agency period will open on March 18th–more than a month before the draft–and will feature a whopping 14 players who are currently on the Panthers’ roster. Among those are safety Tre Boston, underrated corner James Bradberry, and nickel cornerbacks Javien Elliott and Ross Cockrell–all players who played a significant amount of snaps in the Panthers’ secondary in 2019. With all of those guys being free agents, Carolina clearly has a lot of decisions to make within the defensive backfield. This is where Berry comes into play.
Bradberry, Boston, and Elliott each had good seasons, while Cockrell had his good moments as well. Bradberry will likely be the biggest target to bring back, while Elliott and Cockrell could return on cheaper deals. Boston on the other hand, will want a multi-year deal worth a lot more than the $3 million he made in 2019. If the Panthers elect not to retain the 27-year-old UNC grad, then Berry could be a potential replacement. The more likely route for Carolina to sign the former first-round pick, though, is if they are dissatisfied with Eric Reid moving forward. Reid was handed a three-year extension following the end of last season, but had a dreadful 2019 season.
Reid started all 16 games at strong safety for the Panthers this past season, despite playing poorly for a large portion of the time. According to Pro Football Focus, Reid was the 84th-best safety out of 85 who qualified. While he did show some value as a run-stopper and a blitzer, he was horrendous in pass coverage, as most fans can attest. He was so bad that he was PFF’s lowest-graded qualifying safety in coverage. On 70 targets, he gave up 54 receptions for 750 yards, eight touchdowns, a near-perfect 149.1 passer rating, and failed to record an interception. It’s obvious Reid struggled mightily against the pass. To make matters worse, he is the 15th-highest paid safety in the NFL. If, however, Carolina releases him prior to June 1st, the team will save $3 million in cap space this season and $7.1 million in 2021.
Berry would be a low-risk, high-reward option for the Panthers.
Assuming the year-long layoff was enough to get Berry back to full strength, he could be a valuable addition to the Panthers over the next few seasons. When he returns, he’ll be a free agent, and since he hasn’t played in over a year, he’ll likely come fairly cheap. In fact, he’d likely come a good bit cheaper than Boston, and would be a massive upgrade over Reid. At full strength, Berry is one of the best safeties in the league. If he comes back healthy, and the Panthers feel as though they can compete in the near future, he would not only provide the team with key veteran leadership, but also a really good football player.