Kam Chancellor, safety, Seattle Seahawks
The writing seems to be on the wall for Chancellor in Seattle. Here’s a team that picked up four defensive backs, including two safeties in the recent 2017 NFL Draft. General manager John Schneider and Co. are surely preparing for Chancellor to leave in free agency. And the lack of any real extension talks magnifies this further.
The 29-year-old four-time Pro Bowler now enters his contract season with a lot to prove to other teams. He had a down 2016 campaign, struggling to make a huge impact as the Seahawks’ Legion of Boom regressed a tad from previous seasons.
Even then, Chancellor remains one of the best all-around strong safeties in the game. He was still able to record 71 tackles, eight passes defended and two interceptions.
The issue here is that Chancellor will be 30 by the time his first season under a new deal begins. He also plays a position that is not anywhere near as valuable as other areas in the secondary.
In-the-box safeties have proven to be scheme dependent and a dime a dozen for multiple teams out there. It’s going to be important for Chancellor to return to pre-2016 form in order for him to land that final big payday of his career. He needs to show teams outside of the Pete Carroll coaching tree (San Francisco, Oakland and Atlanta) that he can play in pretty much every scheme. That’s why 2017 is so important for the former mid-round pick from Virginia Tech.