Safety Chancellor considers playing camp holdout card
Add another point of intrigue to the beginning of the Seattle Seahawks training camp Friday, as safety Kam Chancellor is considering holding out in an attempt to get a new contract from the National Football League team.
NFL.com initially reported the news, and a league source confirmed that Chancellor is considering holding out and would like to redo his contract.
Chancellor signed a five-year contract extension in April 2013 worth $35 million US with $17 million guaranteed. However, his contract does not include guaranteed money after this season, when he is due for a base salary of $4.45 million.
The 27-year-old is entering his sixth season with the Seahawks and has battled injuries the past few seasons, including missing two games because of a groin injury — Chancellor had missed only one game previously in his Seattle career.
However, he said in the spring that he felt as healthy this offseason as he had any year since being drafted in 2010, fully recovering from a knee injury suffered the Friday before the Super Bowl.
Chancellor, represented by Alvin Keels, joins a list of Seahawks players in some sort of contract intrigue as camp gets set to open Friday.
Quarterback Russell Wilson is attempting to negotiate an extension, as is middle linebacker Bobby Wagner — each are now eligible for extensions now that they are in the final season of their initial four-year rookie contracts.
Defensive lineman Michael Bennett also would like a new contract and held out of organized team activities to indicate his unhappiness, though he did attend a mandatory mini-camp and NFL.com is reporting that Bennett is likely to show up Friday. And defensive end Bruce Irvin is miffed that the team did not exercise his contract option for the 2016 season, which would have paid him more than $7 million.
Players can be fined up to $30,000 a day for holding out of training camp.
It could be the second year a high-profile player is absent when camp begins. Running back Marshawn Lynch held out for the first week of training camp last season, returning after the team agreed to make some adjustments that guaranteed an additional $1.5 million, though he didn’t receive any new money.
The team, though, has a general stance of not renegotiating contracts unless the player is in the final year of his deal.
Corry said the way Chancellor’s contract is structured, with the cap hits increasing to $6.1 million in 2016 and $8.1 million in 2017 “leave him vulnerable” if he has a bad season, which could lead to the team asking him to restructure his contract, or his release.