The Chiefs managed to keep star safety Eric Berry off the free agent market when they placed the franchise tag on him last offseason. Berry is once again unsigned as free agency approaches this winter, but the six-year Chief prefers to remain in Kansas City. “I hope so,” he informed Adam Teicher of ESPN.com on Wednesday. Berry’s also under the impression his representative and the team have opened contract talks, telling Teichner, “I think my agent had a conversation yesterday or something. It’s early.”

With defensive tackle Dontari Poe a strong candidate to end up with the franchise tag this offseason, the Chiefs might not have that as a fallback option to retain Berry in 2017. Not being able to tag Berry would perhaps hinder the Chiefs’ chances of keeping the 27-year-old, as the two sides never came close to reaching a long-term agreement last summer. Despite some displeasure with the fact that Kansas City tagged him last year, Berry went on to rack up his fifth Pro Bowl nod. In his second straight 16-game season, Berry amassed 77 tackles and a career-high-tying four interceptions.

More from the AFC:

• The groin surgery Bills quarterback Tyrod Taylor underwent earlier this month won’t play a role in whether the team will exercise or decline his option by the March 11 deadline, general manager Doug Whaley stated Wednesday. “Let me say this, all the prognostication is saying that it’s going to be something that will never play into it,” Whaley told reporters, including Vic Carucci of the Buffalo News. If Taylor isn’t able to pass a physical by the aforementioned date, the Bills would be stuck with the $27.5MM in guarantees left on his contract. While it appeared immediately after the season that the Bills would part with Taylor in the next couple months, their offensive coordinator hiring may have changed that.
• Bobby Grier, a longtime member of the Texans’ front office, is leaving Houston to join the Dolphins as a scouting consultant, according to Omar Kelly of the South Florida Sun Sentinel. That means Grier will work with his son, Dolphins general manager Chris Grier. The elder Grier was instrumental in the Texans’ decision to draft three-time Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt 11th overall in 2011 and was “the only NFL executive who did extensive work” on an unheralded Michigan quarterback named Tom Brady entering the 2000 draft, writes Kelly. Brady went in the sixth round that year to New England, and you know the rest.
• Free agent quarterback Aaron Murray worked out for the Jets on Wednesday, per Adam Caplan of ESPN (Twitter link). Murray spent 2016 on the Eagles’ practice squad, but he has been available since they elected against signing him to a reserve/futures deal earlier this month. The 26-year-old was a standout at Georgia, where he became the SEC’s all-time leader in passing yards, completions and touchdowns, but he hasn’t recorded an NFL statistic since KC took him in the fifth round of the 2014 draft.