KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Safety Eric Berry was among the large group of Kansas City Chiefs who didn't play in Thursday night's final preseason game at the St. Louis Rams. Unlike the others, Berry isn't a starter and isn't injured.
But Berry took the night off anyway. Coach Andy Reid indicated that was Berry's choice and not his or anyone else's.
Berry has been the second-team free safety, which meant he was scheduled to start against the Rams, as most of the other second-teamers did.
"I gave it to him as an option what he wanted to do there," Reid said. "If he felt like he had enough reps and felt comfortable enough. ...He said he wanted to get kind of through the week and see how he felt.
"He took a ton of reps this past week [in practice] if you noticed. He was in for all the scout team and then jumped in with the [starters] and did all that and the [backups]. He was all over the place.
"He accumulated a ton of reps, so by the time we got to the game he felt pretty comfortable with where he was at and how he felt. Some of that kind of stuff, only the player knows. He's a veteran guy and he's not one that's going to try to get out of anything or tell you something. I've got a lot of trust him. He feels like he's in a pretty good place right now."
The Chiefs are comfortable with their starting safeties, Husain Abdullah and Ron Parker. Berry has been a backup who plays some with the starters in obvious passing situations.
His role is unlikely to change unless the Chiefs need him in their lineup because of an injury to one of their starters.
Tight end Travis Kelce, who sprained his ankle early in the week, was among the injured players who didn't make the trip to St. Louis. But Kelce wouldn't have played even if his ankle was 100 percent.
"We didn't want [the ankle] to swell," Reid said. "That was the only thing. We kind of had his ankle under control there and we didn't want it to swell with the flight. You always have to take that into consideration. We just left him back and he did his treatment stuff [in Kansas City]."