The 2015 NFL season is here, and the Seattle Seahawks don’t want to start it without Kam Chancellor on the field. Right now he’s not designated to play in week 1, but the Seahawks have been trying to make moves in his direction in order to end the holdout.
Chancellor has been holding out for a month now which is costing him a lot of money, but he doesn’t seem concerned about that aspect. He wants to win his attempt to get more guaranteed money. This isn’t about adding years to his contract or getting a higher overall salary. He wants money from the 2017 season moved to 2016 or perhaps even now. Basically, he wants more guaranteed money and simply knows a dollar in 2016 is worth more than a dollar in 2017. Chancellor thinks the Seahawks should have put an end to this by now.
I’m not asking for much, the Seahawks should do it. This could have been over by now.
Different reports suggest the Seahawks are trying to appeal to Chancellor with offers of bumping his 2016 salary by $3 million to $8.1 million. However, Chancellor wants another $900,000; not per year, but overall in the salary shift, and that, allegedly, is holding the deal back. He’s due to make $6.8 million in 2017. He signed a four-year, $28 million deal in 2013.
The problem for the Seahawks here is the precedent they might be setting. As a rule, they don’t negotiate with players who have more than one year left on their deal (Chancellor is signed through the 2017 season). Doing this for Chancellor means other deals are open for negotiation and changes, and maybe the entire team will start holding out, seeing they can get more money or better conditions and money upfront with applying a little bit pressure.
The Seahawks didn’t think Chancellor will carry on with his holdout until mid September, but he’s willing to give up game checks it seems in order to get his point across and for the front office to comply to his demands. More likely than not, most of the money he lost through fines and missing training camp will be brought back to him in order to appease him, but for now, Chancellor is still without a changed deal, and not showing up for the first game of the season.