Kam Chancellor to hold out?

Add another name to the list of Seattle Seahawk players trying to cash in on the team’s success.

The Seattle Seahawks have restructured some deals in the past, most notably with Zach Miller and Leroy Hill, but in those cases it worked against the players long-term standing with the team.  Essentially they shortened both of those deals, giving the player more cash now in exchange for more immediate contract relief for the team. Those deals make sense when the player isn’t a crucial part of the team’s core.

Unquestionably, that’s not the case here. Kam Chancellor is still only 27 years old, is widely considered the premier strong safety in the game, and reported this off season that he’s feeling better physically than he has in years after battling through injuries the past couple of seasons.

Whereas Michael Bennett’s desire to redo his deal this off season never really reached high level fear factor because he’s only a year into a 4 year pact, a Chancellor holdout may provide the first real test to the Seahawks organizational philosophy about not renegotiating with more than a year left on a player’s contract.

This story is just breaking, so we shall see over the next few days what comes of it.  Perhaps this can all be solved a’la Marshawn Lynch where the team simply moves some 2016 money forward, with a promise to talk extension next offseason as he heads into the final year of his deal.

My guess is if Chancellor is indeed serious about holding out for more money now, we all need to get used to the idea of the team going into the 2015 season with a pair of backup safety’s as starters.  No way the team changes the way they handle these situations, the snowball effect with other young players would be a potential disaster.  And with Earl Thomas’ availability in doubt due to his recovery from shoulder surgery, this is a situation that deserves monitoring before it gets downright scary.

Stay tuned.

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