RENTON —Doug Baldwin says he talks to Kam Chancellor “every day.”
So, yes, the Seattle Seahawks’ top wide receiver says he knows what his fellow team leader is doing in his holdout that is now in its 26th day with zero end in sight. And, no, Baldwin is not in the locker room wondering what the star strong safety is up to and why he’s not with his team.
“No,” Baldwin said following today’s helmets-and-shoulder-pads practice here in Renton. “I talk to Kam every day, so I know exactly what he’s doing.”
Does Baldwin, like most teammates, agree with Chancellor’s stance that he get more this year than the $4.55 million with $4.45 million of that salary guaranteed he is scheduled to earn?
Baldwin paused then specified: “I support Kam Chancellor, the person. I know what he stands for.
“I know this is a difficult time, both for the organization and for him. Gotta get through it.
“It’s part of what this team is. It’s the price of success. We have so much talent here, guys that want to get paid, that need to get paid … it’s the price of success.”
Baldwin said he is optimistic the impasse will end soon and Chancellor will be back anchoring the middle of Seattle’s top-ranked defense with thumping hits before the games get real Sept. 13 at St. Louis.
Unless Chancellor suddenly U-turns from his dug-in stance — or the Seahawks reverse theirs that they aren’t going to add guaranteed money now to his deal on which he still has three years remaining — he will miss the third and relatively most important preseason game Saturday at San Diego. Seattle’s starters will likely play into the second half in their final rehearsal before the opener.
If Chancellor takes this holdout past Sept. 1, the day of the league’s first roster cut from 90 to 75 players, the league’s collective bargaining agreement appears to allow the Seahawks to request a roster exemption for him. That could trigger the team to withhold regular-season game checks until he does report.
Article 20, Section 4.b. states that for players under contract who do not report: “If a Club obtains a roster exemption for a player under contract who does not report to his Club until after the first roster reduction, the player will not be entitled to preseason or regular season compensation until such exemption is removed, provided the player is given written notice of such fact upon reporting to the Club.”
Asked if he could imagine Chancellor taking this holdout into the regular season, Baldwin said: “Could I imagine it?
“I don’t want to.”
Chancellor staying out into the regular season would leave him risking not only a first game check of $267,647 but potentially an additional $250,000 fine from the team — 25 percent of his $1 million signing-bonus proration for this year, per the CBA. That’s on top of the $900,000-plus he’s now potentially at risk for in preseason fines at $30,000 per day missed.
Not that the Seahawks will choose to fine him any amount.
Meanwhile Dion Bailey, a practice-squad member for most of the 2014 season as an undrafted rookie from USC, is likely to start for the second consecutive preseason game Saturday at strong safety for Chancellor.
And on it goes.
Bennett being Bennett
Michael Bennett was as only Michael Bennett can be Tuesday morning on the radio.
Outspoken. Almost (?) outrageous.
Talking on the “Brock and Salk” show on Seattle’s 710 ESPN before practice, the glib defensive end likened his relationship with the team that won’t give him the raise he wants to a flawed marriage.
“I’m like a wife that’s married to a guy that they have kids, and she can’t really, you know, she can’t leave because loves the kids. I love the kids, those are my teammates,” Bennett said over the cackling of hosts Mike Salk and Brock Huard — and undoubtedly most of those listening.
He, like his teammates, supports Chancellor in his holdout.
“Kam has earned his take in the NFL,” Bennett told 710. “He’s played through a lot of injuries and he’s one of the best players in the NFL. I think he deserves a raise, and I’ve always seconded everything he’s done. Hopefully he gets back soon.
“I just think he’s one of the best players. I think the organization should reward him in some type of way. They just have to figure out how to do it.”
Lynch fined back in January
Hey, here’s a new Seahawks story line:
Pro Football Talk reported Marshawn Lynch learned Tuesday he has a hearing Thursday with the NFL over its fining him $75,000 for not being available to speak to the media in the Seahawks’ locker room immediately following the NFC championship game in January.
The league fined Lynch $100,000 last November after he didn’t talk to national media that complained following Seattle’s loss at Kansas City.
Already can’t wait for another season of that coming up.
Extra point
Second-year linebacker Kevin Pierre-Louis, back from shoulder injuries, acknowledged he may start Saturday at San Diego with Bruce Irvin still sidelined to follow team and league concussion protocols. Irvin got hurt in Friday’s exhibition at Kansas City but didn’t show concussion symptoms until later after the game. Pierre-Louis played last week for the first time since his 2014 debut ended after seven games.
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