Pro Football Focus: Sophomore Spotlight – Eric Berry
 

Fantasy: Sophomore Spotlight – Eric Berry
June 19th, 2011 | Author: Ross Miles

A winner of both the Jim Thorpe and Jack Tatum Awards for the nation’s top defensive back in 2009, Berry elected to enter the NFL Draft after his junior season. Arguably the best and safest prospect in the 2010 NFL Draft class, similar to this year’s Patrick Peterson, general consensus was that despite elite talent, a defensive back is not #1 draft pick material. Berry fell to the fifth overall pick where Kansas City was happy to select a player with 14 college interceptions on his resume.

Berry instantly became a day 1 starter, not missing a single snap all season. He showcased his versatility in his playmaking abilities in his rookie season, charting 90 total tackles, 2 sacks, 4 interceptions and a forced fumble, quickly becoming a top 10 fantasy safety.

It wasn’t all smooth sailing though for Berry, who started poorly, allowing 6/6 passes completed for 190 yards and 3 touchdowns through the first 2 games. In fact, he saw a marked jump in his performance from week 8 onwards, halving his YAC allowed and only allowing 1 touchdown.

-http://www.profootballfocus.com/wp-c...Eric-Berry.png

Eric Berry - PFF gradings by week
% Ct Tot. Yds Avg. Cat YAC TD Int PD Passer Rating
Weeks 1-7 78.6% 249 16.7 84 6 1 1 117.5
Weeks 8-17 50.0% 140 8.4 48 1 3 5 60.0

Berry ended the season as PFF’s #20 graded safety at +3.8, but most impressively he was our #7 pass-rushing safety (+3.4). Berry rushed the passer on only 4.95% of snaps (35 times), but disrupted the quarterback on 34.29% of his blitzes (12 times). If given the opportunity to blitz more often in 2011 he could pad his fantasy points nicely.

To be a top fantasy defensive back you need to be able to make consistent tackles too. Again Berry improved after week 7, upping his solo tackles per game from 3.5 to 5.2. Those figures don’t include his season best performance in the playoffs, when he reached double-digits for the first time against Baltimore. He was also more effective at making stops, charting 24 in the final ten games having made 4 in the first six games.

A true dynamic threat, Berry made four interceptions last season, including one for touchdown against Tennessee when he beat 5 Titans on the way to the endzone. Playing for the Tennessee Volunteers in college Berry made 14 picks, returning three for touchdown and 494 total yards. He reminds me of Ed Reed in the way he makes interceptions and finds a way to return the ball, and Reed has 20 and 3 TDs in the past three seasons.

The IDP team at PFF quite likes Berry to break out as a fantasy stud in 2011. Our projection model ranks Berry as the #2 defensive back in 2011, behind only LaRon Landry, but our combined wisdom has him ranked as our top DB prospect.
Rk Player Team Pos Snaps Tks Asst Sks TL Int PD FF Pts
2 Eric Berry KC SS 1104 85 17 2 4 4 12 1 158

We expect Berry to be a prized IDP asset, who should be targeted early in all fantasy formats this season. 90 total tackles make you a solid fantasy option, but supplementing that with explosive interceptions and a dangerous pass-rush makes you elite. In our IDP Dynasty rankings, only Lawrence Timmons, Patrick Willis and Justin Tuck have higher values, showing just how much we like Berry.

Berry is awesome and all but that's putting a lot of eggs in the basket:

Rivers x2
Manning
Brady
Roethlisberger
Cutler
Rodgers

I'll be happy if Berry maintains his level of play from last year.

You also got a copy of Berry's Billy Madison-esque "people to kill" list? Instead of leaning back on his couch and putting on lipstick to some ELO, he plays Madden while listening to some Lil Boosie. And yeah, I'm also intrigued as to how he'll kill Rivers twice.

Eric Berry will be unreal in 2011. He will be looked at as the best DB on the roster by the end, and that's after Flowers has another very good season.

so im not a homer for picking him up in my leagues. good to know.

One of those names doesn't belong ROFL

Check out Cutler's stats at home. He's a dangerous QB.

pretty sure EB is gonna make these QB's throw outside a lot. a. lot. especially if they can get Lewis to play better, which I expect he will which means he'll have that speed out there more and McGraw will play less.

the thing about EB is, he's smart. football smart. worldly smart.

yeppers

I predict a slump year. Teams are gonna scheme him and make his head and body work double time.

Just thought I'd post it as they pointed out his marked improvement from the first half of the season to the second.

It's not like they didn't do that in his rookie season. It was no secret who our top 2 defensive players were last year.

...the guy just has great instincts...his closing speed and abilty to slice through narrow gaps is incredible.

So teams didn't scheme him last year when he was an unproven rookie?

thousand yard stare.......... more film equals more time for coaches/players to tweak and learn tendencies.

Top rated young safety means he has a gigantic bullseye on his back and every offensive skill player and coach in the NFL is gonna be lookin for a weakness....

ha! this secondary is gonna rock and roll teams now. you watch, EB is gonna wreak havoc starting this season. nobody is gonna want to cross the middle. to those who dare, I wish you luck and a good chin strap buckle :evil:

more to the safety position than playing the middle these days.