The Way Too Early Top 5 Free Agents for Colts to Target
5. Eric Berry, Safety, Kansas City Chiefs
Having applied a $10.806M franchise tag on star safety Eric Berry in 2016, the safety is due a 20% raise under the tag if a long-term deal can’t be reached with the Kansas City Chiefs this offseason. That inflated tag would place him at $12.96M for 2017, which would effectively make him the highest paid safety in all of football over the Arizona Cardinals Tyrann Mathieu.
Things could get trick salary cap wise for the Chiefs, who already have star nose tackle Dontari Poe as a potential franchise tag candidate as well with little wiggle room under the salary cap.
As the 5th overall pick of the 2010 NFL Draft, the 3x First-Team All-Pro, 5x Pro Bowler, and 2015 NFL Comeback Player of the Year has been nothing short of a superstar safety for the Kansas City Chiefs and is arguably the heart and soul of their vaunted defense–maybe the whole team.
On the season, the 6’0″, 212 pound safety started all 16 games for the Chiefs, recording 77 total tackles, 1 forced fumbles, and 4 interceptions.
Per Pro Football Focus (subscription), the 28 year old was their 7th best rated safety overall with a +87.8 grade overall–showing no signs of slowing down.
While 2nd-year safety Clayton Geathers appears to be a rising star on the Colts defense, there’s no guarantee that he’ll actually stay at safety long-term–as he could eventually transition to inside linebacker.
Additionally, free agent veteran safety Mike Adams turns 36 years old in March and is no guarantee to return, while rookie T.J. Green remains a work in progress as a project–having had his fair share of struggles during his rookie season (including a number of bonehead mistakes).
Berry would theoretically provide the Colts a true ‘ballhawk’ safety in every sense of the word, as an All-Pro caliber player who’s adept at defending both the run and pass at a high level–while becoming a leader for the Indianapolis defense. He would easily be the most dynamic safety that the Colts have had since former NFL Defensive Player of the Year Bob Sanders infamously roamed from sideline-to-sideline for the Horseshoe.
Both Pagano and Monachino had success having future Hall of Famer Ed Reed at safety anchoring their secondary for their stingy Baltimore Ravens defenses, and Berry is really that same high caliber of defender to build around and should still have several ‘star’ years left.
It’s worth noting too that if he indeed returns, head coach Chuck Pagano already has shared a bond with Berry, as both are cancer survivors–as Pagano supported Berry throughout the young safety’s own cancer fight with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 2014-15.