Chiefs’ Eric Berry set to return to practice

Kansas City Chiefs safety Eric Berry, who has missed the last three games with a high ankle sprain, was scheduled to practice Monday.

Berry, a three-time Pro Bowler at safety, racked up 15 tackles in his only full game this season, the Chiefs' season-opening 26-10 loss to Tennessee. He got hurt the next week against Denver.

But while Berry was out, Ron Parker played pretty well in Berry’s absence.

Secondary coach Emmitt Thomas said Parker performed well.

Parker, a college safety who converted to cornerback in the NFL because of his size (6 feet, 206 pounds) and speed (4.38 40-yard dash), has recorded 20 tackles and a pass deflection in the Chiefs’ last four games.

“I don't know if he's a better corner or safety,” Thomas said. “All I know is this — whatever you ask him to do, he does it with joy and a lot of pride. Since Eric has gotten hurt, he's been playing the safety position and he's playing it every well. He's getting better each week.”

Parker is part of a unit that is on pace to drastically reduce the amount of big plays it allowed last season. Thomas said that when Berry returns to game action, the Chiefs will be able to use them both because they play a lot of nickel and dime subpackages.

“The two things that help him are he's mentally tough and he's fast,” Thomas said of Parker. “So even if he misreads some things, he has enough speed to get to it.”

Cornerback Chris Owens, who suffered a knee injury against the 49ers, won’t practice Monday.

If Owens is unable to play this week against San Diego — Chiefs coach Andy Reid said “it’s a stretch” — cornerbacks Phillip Gaines and Jamell Fleming are the next men up at nickel cornerback.

“You have Phillip and (Jamell) Fleming, you’ve got some guys that can go in there and do that, that have worked in there, so we’ll just see how it all works out here,” Reid said.

Reid said Gaines, a third-round pick this year who suffered a concussion against the 49ers, is okay now and has been making steady improvement, particularly on special teams where he’s had a handful of big hits and seen his role increase in recent games.

“His confidence level and his strength and all those things are improving,” Reid said. “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.”

Reid said this improvement translates to the defensive side as well, though Gaines has only played four of 318 possible snaps this season.

“We see that in practice too as a cover guy, as a corner, so he gives you that,” Reid said. “To answer your question, 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.”

Worth noting — Inside linebacker Joe Mays, who suffered a wrist injury before the regular season, isn’t slated to return from injured reserve this week even though he’s eligible to.

“He’s not quite ready yet, but he’s getting there,” Reid said. “I just know when he’s scheduled to get himself back and it’s not this week, from a medical standpoint.”

The league allows each team to place one player per season on the injured reserve/designated for return list. After eight weeks, the player can return to the active roster.

Reid said the length of time receiver Donnie Avery will miss due to sports hernia surgery, which he had last week, remains uncertain.

“He’s out right now, but ... we haven’t IR’ed him,” Reid said.

Reid said running back Cyrus Gray, who has a fractured hand, “can move around a bit.”

This story was originally published October 13, 2014 at 6:38 PM with the headline "Chiefs’ Eric Berry set to return to practice."