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Kam’s back, now what?

By Dan Viens

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So after all that……. after the sniping, the threats to sit out all year, the Twitter-blocking, and the two losses to start the season, Kam Chancellor has finally decided to grace the Seahawks with his presence. As first reported early this morning, Chancellor is at VMAC and practicing with the team today, and plans to play on Sunday.

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On the field, there’s no question Chancellor makes the Seahawks a better team, in fact some now think it makes them the BEST team again:

But what happens in that locker room today and the rest of this week may well determine exactly how far this team is capable of going this year. How will he be accepted? Part of the message Kam sent to Stephen A. Smith this morning via text indicated Chancellor is fully aware that not everyone is happy about his holdout, and it’s interesting timing that he chose to report today after his brother in arms and fellow safety Earl Thomas made some pointed remarks about his absence.

"“At this moment, he’s not battling with us, so I can’t really tell you what (his absence means),” Thomas said. “It would be great if he comes back, but we’re gonna keep on truckin’ … You never know what’s going on with someone in that situation. He’s in a whole other place right now. He’s handling his situation, (rather than) helping us. I try not to deal with that energy.” – Earl Thomas, Monday after the Packers loss"

How much will that negative energy Thomas references impact team chemistry? That remains to be seen, but as much as I’ve been critical of the way Kam chose to deal with his contract dissatisfaction, this feels like a situation that can quickly be turned into a positive. He’s coming back at a time when the team is preparing to face a down-and-out Chicago Bears unit playing with a backup QB. It was about this time last year that Percy Harvin started single-handedly trying to destroy the Seahawks locker room chemistry, and that situation lingered for over a month before the team essentially kicked Harvin off the team. We all know how well the team rallied from that distraction. A big win on a beautiful day in front of the home crowd seems like it will go a long way towards hitting the reset button on the 2015 season much earlier than they had to hit it in 2014.

Chancellor took the first step towards brushing all this under the carpet and starting with a clean slate by stating that he will wait until the offseason to address his contract status again. Smart. Clearly he “lost” this staring contest, but if he says and does the right things this week he can easily and quickly regain the acceptance of his teammates and the fans.

And if you’re still angry with Kam, and thinking that it might take you awhile to forgive him, just watch this a couple times.

Or a couple hundred.

Kam is expected to address the media today after practice, and Pete Carroll’s press conference is coming up as well. We will have reaction afterwards.

Next: Week 3 NFL Power Rankings

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