Tennessee football: Top 10 former Vols in the NFL for 2018
Safety. Kansas City Chiefs. Eric Berry. 3. player. 124.
This is always the story with Eric Berry. He suffers something that forces him to miss an entire year, and then he comes back as an All-Pro safety carrying the Kansas City Chiefs. One of the greatest Tennessee football players of all time, expect him to do the same this year.
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Berry missed almost all of last year due to an injury. But that’s nothing new for him. He’s been the comeback kid his whole career. His season was cut short in 2014 due to his lymphoma. All he did was comeback and make All-Pro in 2015 and 2016. Before that, after a strong rookie season in 2010, he missed all of 2011. He was then a Pro Bowler in 2012 and 2013.
When he’s healthy, Berry remains the best and most complete safety in the NFL. If the coaches wanted to, they could line him up at linebacker, and he’d be just as deadly. Heck, they could play him at wide receiver or running back as well.
The guy may be injury prone, but he’s still a physical specimen. And he’s a very smart player and has amazing intangibles. So while he’ll still have to get his bearings while adjusting to being back on the field again, Berry will return to being one of the best former Vols in the NFL.
If it wasn’t for his injury, I’d actually have him No. 1 here, especially with Jason Witten retiring. Him and Peyton Manning being gone all of a sudden made these top spots difficult. Instead of Berry, though, we’ll turn to a couple of second-year surge players for that.