By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
Has the LOB lost its Boom for good?
Seattle coach Pete Carroll didn’t rule out on Monday that strong safety Kam Chancellor may have played his last NFL game while confirming that he won’t play again in the 2017 season.
Rumors that Chancellor would be done for the season have circulated for a week or so but the team had not confirmed anything until Carroll said on Monday on his weekly radio show on ESPN 710 Seattle that he will not return, and then reiterated that during his press conference later in the day.
“He’s not going to make it back this year,” Carroll said of Chancellor, who suffered a neck injury that resulted in stingers during a game against Arizona on Nov. 9.
The more pressing question is what happens next to the player whose whose 6-3, 225-pound frame, hard hits and knack for big plays at key times added a dimension of intimidation that combined with the speed and anticipation of free safety Earl Thomas to give Seattle what many have felt is the best safety duo in the NFL for the past six seasons.
Carroll said Chancellor will not need surgery “right now” but that otherwise it is unclear where things are headed.
“The process is just, he feels good, he feels comfortable, he’s not in discomfort at all, which is good,” Carroll said. “But there is a process as far as when we do the work with the up and down stuff (in terms of his spot on the roster). We’ll figure that out.”
That means Chancellor is likely to be put on Injured Reserve soon.
Otherwise, Carroll was vague about what the future holds for Chancellor, who entered the league in 2010 and will turn 30 next April 3.
“We’re really trying to be very respectful of Kam and kind of let him call the shots as far as what is known and all that kind of stuff and how he wants to talk about it because this is him,” Carroll said. “It’s not us, it’s him. And we will support him all that we can.”
As for whether he is considering the possibility that Chancellor will not be able to play again Carroll said “not really considering, worrying about that right now. Just trying to get week-to-week here and more concerned about just Kam and his mentality and how he is doing. He’ll be in charge of all that.”
Chancellor signed a three-year contract extension before the season worth up to $36 million total with $25 million guaranteed that officially starts in 2018 (though the way it was written it also essentially ripped up his 2017 deal).
His contract includes cap hits of $9.8 million, $13 million and $14.5 million the next three years but with dead cap numbers of $7.5 million, $5 million and $2.5 million.
Chancellor’s entire 2018 base salary of $6.8 million for the 2018 season is guaranteed for injury as is $5.2 million of his $10 million 2019 salary, which from a strict financial standpoint would make it unlikely that he would voluntarily retire.
Carroll also said that defensive end Cliff Avril had surgery on Tuesday to repair a disc in his neck. Avril is on Injured Reserve after also suffering a stinger in a game against Indianapolis on Oct. 1. Carroll said that Avril will also have to figure out if he wants to continue to play.
Asked if Avril can play again, Carroll said that will be up to Avril to figure out and that the surgery would go a long ways toward dictating what happens next.
“I don’t know what the future holds,” Carroll said. “Guys do come back from that surgery sometimes and sometimes they don’t. Just depends.”
As for if the ages of Avril and Chancellor might make it easier for either to accept deciding to leave football Carroll said he didn’t want to speculate about either player’s thought process.
“Each one of them is an individual in how they are looking at it and we are, too, in trying to support them and guide them and help them,” he said.
The confirmation that Chancellor is out for the year means it is also now assured Seattle will play the rest of the year without both Chancellor and Richard Sherman in the secondary, as well as Avril — all three players who have made Pro Bowls in the last two seasons.
Avril, who turns 32 in April, has one year remaining on a four-year, $28.5 million contract he signed in 2014. It includes a cap hit of $8 million but a dead cap number of just $500,000.
Rumblings that Chancellor could be done for the season surfaced shortly after what has proven to be his final game of the season against Arizona. Chancellor left the game at the two-minute warning after having tackled Arizona’s Andre Ellington on the second-to-last play before the warning. Chancellor was on the field for one more play before leaving.
Chancellor was a fifth round pick out of Virginia Tech in 2010. He spent his first season as a backup to Lawyer Milloy but moved into the starting lineup in 2011 along with Thomas, and then six games into the season Sherman, as the trio quickly formed the heart of the LOB secondary.
Chancellor became the intimidator of the group — or as he preferred to call it on his Twitter page, “The Enforcer” — with his hit on San Francisco’s Vernon Davis in 2012 and then on Denver’s Demaryius Thomas early in the Super Bowl win over Denver coming to define the Carroll-era Seahawks.
Chancellor has stayed with the team since his injury on the sidelines for the last two games and Carroll on Monday praised how he aided his teammates in Sunday’s win at San Francisco.
“He was a fantastic factor in this game,” Carroll said. “In the locker room he was big time and on the sidelines he was big time in helping the communication and stuff. So I’m glad he is staying with us and still adding a presence that he has always been able to add.”
If an era has truly ended may be premature to say. But Monday’s public acknowledgement by Carroll that Chancellor may never play again is the latest sign that the ending may sadly be arriving sooner than anyone had anticipated.
