NFL News: Chancellor ends contract holdout with Seahawks

Kam Chancellor has ended his contract holdout and has returned to the Seattle Seahawks. The safety missed the team’s training camp and first two games with hopes that the team restructures his current contract.

"I've always been a guy who follows my heart, and just watching my teammates and my team play week to week, first, second game, watching those losses, it hurt me being the leader that I am," Chancellor said to ESPN. "It was very hard because, not taking away from anybody else, but I knew I could make a difference."

Without Chancellor, who is one of the best defenders in the team and also one of the leaders, the Seahawks went 0-2 to start the 2015 NFL regular season with losses to the St. Louis Rams (34-31) and Green Bay Packers (27-17). Because of the holdout, the 27-year-old Chancellor, who was a fifth round pick in the 2010 NFL Draft, has already lost money amounting to $267,647 (approximately $AU383,000) with the two games missed. Chancellor was due $5,119,117 (approximately AU$7,330,000) for the entire 2015 season.

Chancellor’s annual average salary from 2013-2017 amounts to about $7 million (AU$10 million) per year, which is among the top 10 highest-paid for the safety position. The highest-paid safety in the league is his teammate Earl Thomas, who earns $10 million (AU$14 million) per season. In 14 games last season, Chancellor, who is a three-time NFL Pro Bowler, had 78 tackles, 1 forced fumble and an interception.

For his career, all with the Seahawks, he has 398 tackles, 2 sacks, 8 forced fumbles and 9 interceptions in 77 regular season games and 72 tackles and 3 interceptions in 10 playoff games. Both the Seahawks franchise and Chancellor have not stated if they are going to discuss the contract status after the season. Chancellor is under contract with the Seahawks until the 2017 season.

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