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Report: Former All-Pro S Berry to return in ’20

Field Level Media

January 25, 2020 at 9:05 pm.

Safety Eric Berry plans to return to the NFL in 2020 after sitting out the past season, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported Saturday.

“He actually did have opportunities to play in the league this past year,” Garafolo said on “Good Morning Football.”

“He took a sabbatical. He wanted to make sure he could get himself right mentally and physically.”

Berry, 31, was released last March by the Kansas City Chiefs, who drafted him in 2010 with the No. 5 overall pick.

In nine seasons with the Chiefs, Berry played in 89 games (87 starts) but played in at least 15 games just five times.

In the season opener against the Buffalo Bills in 2011, he sustained a torn ACL that kept him out all season. In 2014, a sprained ankle sidelined him for five weeks, and then in December, his season ended abruptly when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

By 2015, he was cancer-free and appeared in all 16 games, winning the AP Comeback Player of the Year Award and being named to his second of three All-Pro first teams.

In 2017, after signing a six-year, $78 million contract with Kansas City, he suffered another season-ending injury on opening day, this time a ruptured Achilles. The following season, he missed all but two regular-season games as he dealt with a heel injury.

For his career, Berry has 445 tackles, 5.5 sacks, 14 interceptions and four forced fumbles.

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