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Factoid

Eric Berry

Safety has been part of opportunistic secondary

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
Team11121315Total
Seattle2218281482
Green Bay3118111676
NY Giants2021171573
New England2320171272
Buffalo2012231772
Chicago202419871
Arizona1022201971
Kansas City207212270
Carolina1411202469
Cincinnati1014202165
Atlanta1920101564
Tampa Bay1418211164
San Francisco231418964
Washington1321161161
NY Jets1911131861
Philadelphia158191557
Miami1610181357
Detroit211115956
St. Louis1217141356
Denver916171456
Tennessee1119131154
San Diego1714111153
Houston171571453
Oakland181191452
Indianapolis812151752
Cleveland917141151
Baltimore151316650
Jacksonville171211949
Pittsburgh1110101748
Dallas15715845
New Orleans91512945
Minnesota810121343

--Andy Richardson

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