The deadline for signing franchise-tagged players has come and gone, and a lot of players are a whole lot richer. Exceptions include Kirk Cousins, Alshon Jeffery and Eric Berry, who will play out the season on the one-year tag, then hope to strike long-term deals with someone next offseason.
Kansas City seems to be taking a pretty big chance not locking up Berry, who's been a key component of the secondary the last few years. The safety himself has accounted for only 10 career interceptions, but when he missed most of the 2014 season, the team went from having one of the league's most opportunistic secondaries to one of its least.
Three times in the last four seasons (not counting 2014), Kansas City had at least 20 interceptions. No other team has done that; only Chicago and Arizona (with 20-plus twice and 19 in a third season) came close. Only seven teams had more total interceptions in those four years than Kansas City.
Berry will be there in 2016, but his future beyond that is uncertain.
Team interceptions over those last four seasons (excluding 2014, when Berry was battling lymphoma) are shown below.
| TEAM INTERCEPTIONS 2011-2013, 2015 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | 11 | 12 | 13 | 15 | Total |
| Seattle | 22 | 18 | 28 | 14 | 82 |
| Green Bay | 31 | 18 | 11 | 16 | 76 |
| NY Giants | 20 | 21 | 17 | 15 | 73 |
| New England | 23 | 20 | 17 | 12 | 72 |
| Buffalo | 20 | 12 | 23 | 17 | 72 |
| Chicago | 20 | 24 | 19 | 8 | 71 |
| Arizona | 10 | 22 | 20 | 19 | 71 |
| Kansas City | 20 | 7 | 21 | 22 | 70 |
| Carolina | 14 | 11 | 20 | 24 | 69 |
| Cincinnati | 10 | 14 | 20 | 21 | 65 |
| Atlanta | 19 | 20 | 10 | 15 | 64 |
| Tampa Bay | 14 | 18 | 21 | 11 | 64 |
| San Francisco | 23 | 14 | 18 | 9 | 64 |
| Washington | 13 | 21 | 16 | 11 | 61 |
| NY Jets | 19 | 11 | 13 | 18 | 61 |
| Philadelphia | 15 | 8 | 19 | 15 | 57 |
| Miami | 16 | 10 | 18 | 13 | 57 |
| Detroit | 21 | 11 | 15 | 9 | 56 |
| St. Louis | 12 | 17 | 14 | 13 | 56 |
| Denver | 9 | 16 | 17 | 14 | 56 |
| Tennessee | 11 | 19 | 13 | 11 | 54 |
| San Diego | 17 | 14 | 11 | 11 | 53 |
| Houston | 17 | 15 | 7 | 14 | 53 |
| Oakland | 18 | 11 | 9 | 14 | 52 |
| Indianapolis | 8 | 12 | 15 | 17 | 52 |
| Cleveland | 9 | 17 | 14 | 11 | 51 |
| Baltimore | 15 | 13 | 16 | 6 | 50 |
| Jacksonville | 17 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 49 |
| Pittsburgh | 11 | 10 | 10 | 17 | 48 |
| Dallas | 15 | 7 | 15 | 8 | 45 |
| New Orleans | 9 | 15 | 12 | 9 | 45 |
| Minnesota | 8 | 10 | 12 | 13 | 43 |
--Andy Richardson