RENTON — Kam Chancellor reached above and below, arms over heads, to sign everything the kids were thrusting his way. Footballs. Jerseys. Posters. Even football jersey posters.
One of the older kids, wearing a Jimmy Graham No. 88 Seahawks jersey, sounded as if he might hyperventilate.
“Oh, my God!” the boy gasped. “Kam CHANCELLOR!!!”
That’s how popular the 29-year-old remains out here, three days into his eighth year as Seattle’s strong safety.
Sounds like the Seahawks may be about to show him appreciation, too — with some more cash.
In what may be the most harmonious, yet protracted contract situation in Seahawks history — at least publicly, anyway — Chancellor on Monday echoed his coach from the day before in saying talks on a new extension to remain with the only NFL team he’s known are “positive on both ends.”
“Hopefully it gets done anytime now,” Chancellor said Monday following the second practice of training camp. “But I feel like it’s been positive on both ends. Both side have been very productive, been working together. And just waiting to see what’s happening.”
More than that, Chancellor said he wants to retire as a Seahawk.
He is entering the last year of a contract he’s wanted extended and re-done for two years. Asked if he wanted the Seahawks to be the last team he plays for, Chancellor said: “Exactly.”
“I do. I do. I love this team. They gave me the first opportunity — the only opportunity (as one of the franchise’s best fifth-round picks ever, in 2010).
“And, you know, I would love to retire here.”
Asked how realistic he thinks retiring as a Seahawk is, Chancellor turned coy. And accurate.
“As realistic as they make it,” he said.
Chancellor reiterated what he said last month: he has faith the Seahawks will take care of him and get a new, fair deal done.
Sunday, coach Pete Carroll said the team has “looked long and hard” at getting Chancellor a new contract, and that “hopefully” there would be an agreement “soon.”
Would Chancellor be surprised if he doesn’t have an extension by the season opener Sept. 10 at Green Bay?
“I don’t like to put negative thoughts in my head. You know, I’m a positive guy,” Chancellor said, grinning. “So I’d rather just keep it on the positive end.
“Both sides are being productive and positive. So we’ll just keep it here.
“Whether it’s done or not done, I’m still going to play ball,” said Chancellor, who held out more than 50 days starting in training camp in 2015 seeking a new contract he still hasn’t gotten. “I’m playing ball, regardless.”
The four-time Pro Bowl selection and soul of the Seahawks’ locker room said he wants to play “as long as the wheels let me, until the wheels fall off.”
He means his legs.
Those have troubled him regularly since 2011, when he missed a game with a quadriceps injury. Since then he’s had groin pulls. He’s had bone spurs in his ankles. He had surgery on both ankles this offseason, resulting in him being in a wheelchair for 10 days.
He hasn’t played a full season since 2013.
He acknowledged with a chuckle his body has extensive mileage on it.
“Of course, yeah, I’m not the same rookie I was seven years ago,” he said. “So of course it’s a lot different. Everything is going to change. Nothing stays the same forever.”
But then he added: “You see, the word old, you are only as old as you feel.
“I don’t call myself old,” he said, shrugging. “I’m just wiser.”
That, of course, is the ultimate reason Chancellor wants more guaranteed cash now, while he is still worth it.
“I can’t really put a time frame on how long I want to play,” Chancellor said. “It’s however long my body holds up, however long the Lord allows me to. It’s never up to me.”
An extension would likely be for a more team-friendly cap number than $8.1 million, Chancellor’s current cap charge for 2017. It would likely have signing-bonus guarantees and back-loaded money beyond this year that the Seahawks could easily shed if his performance declines at age 30 and beyond.
Chancellor is scheduled to earn $6.8 million in base pay and $325,008 in per-week roster bonuses this season.
Chancellor watched in December when the Seahawks gave two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Michael Bennett a $31.5 million extension with $17.5 million guaranteed. Bennett is 2 1/2 years older than Chancellor.
Chancellor watched in March when Miami safety Reshad Jones, who like Chancellor is 29, got a four-year, $48-million contract extension. The Dolphins gave Jones $33 million guaranteed. He got $19,885,000 guaranteed at signing, a $9 million signing bonus and fully guaranteed base pays in 2017 and ‘18.
Jones has been selected to one Pro Bowl in his seven NFL seasons.
But as long as Mount Rainier is still standing, there’s no way the Seahawks want to — or can — guarantee $33 million to Chancellor. Not with fellow star safety Earl Thomas’ contract expiring after 2018.
How much are they willing to pay him, not necessarily just for what he’s worth now but for what he’s done for the franchise for the last seven years?
That delta between what he’s worth now and what the team can or is willing to guarantee Chancellor is likely why he hasn’t already signed a new deal. And to be sure, at this point in his career with his injury history, this entirely is about the guarantees.
Chancellor just got married this summer. Sherman, Thomas and fellow original “Legion of Boom” member and former Seahawks teammate Brandon Browner attended the wedding on the East Coast.
“How was the wedding? It was great, it was like a big party,” he said. “You know both families came together. We celebrated, you know what I mean? It was great.”
It sounds and seems like only a matter of time before he has a new Seahawks contract to celebrate, too.
He won’t even consider a question of looking elsewhere on the open market following this season, because he doesn’t think it will come to that.
“Right now, both sides are having positive talking,” Chancellor said. “We are just going to keep doing what we are doing right now and follow that process.”
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