Chiefs’ Eric Berry to return to practice

Chiefs strong safety Eric Berry, who has missed the last three games because of an ankle sprain, was scheduled to practice when the Chiefs returned from their bye week on Monday.

One other player, nickel cornerback Chris Owens, was not expected to practice while recovering from a concussion sustained at the end of the Chiefs’ 22-17 loss at San Francisco on Oct. 5. Running back and special teams regular Cyrus Gray, who suffered a fractured hand at San Francisco is “okay” and “can move around a bit,” said Chiefs coach Andy Reid.

If Owens is unavailable for Sunday’s game at San Diego, rookie Phillip Gaines and possibly newcomer Jamell Fleming would fill the nickel spot.

Gaines, a third-round draft pick from Rice, has emerged as a special teams standout but did not see any action on defense against San Francisco.

“I think you’ve seen steady improvement with him in particular on special teams,” Reid said of Gaines. “Just on some of the things he can do, his confidence level and his strength and all those things are improving. The speed of the game, it doesn’t look like it’s quite as fast for him as what it was when he first got into it.

“Then we see that in practice too as a cover guy, as a corner. So he gives you that. He’s got tremendous speed and quickness.”

Showing toughness

Despite the Chiefs 2-3 record, Reid said the team has developed a toughness he wasn’t sure it had when the season began.

“We had a lot of new faces in there, so you don’t know how those guys are going to play when they get an opportunity,” Reid said. “And I think they stepped up and showed they can play and compete; they’ve got a certain toughness about them, which I like.

“That’s a tough thing to coach, that toughness thing. Until you are in the fight of playing the game, you don’t exactly know that part of it and you have to experience that. I would tell you that there is some grit to this team and some of the fundamentals and techniques we’ve got to get corrected here, but that grit, that’s a tough thing to coach … and they’ve showed that they’ve got a little of that.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Chiefs’ Eric Berry to return to practice."