Kam Chancellor ends holdout, returns to Seahawks

Kam Chancellor is back with the Seahawks.

As first reported by 710 ESPN Seattle’s Gee Scott and subsequently by others, Chancellor is at the team’s facility on Wednesday, bringing to an end a holdout that lasted more than seven weeks.

Listen to Gee Scott break news of Kam Chancellor’s return

Chancellor sent this text to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, via Adam Schefter:

“Ima go help my teammates that are understanding of my position and the ones who aren’t. God forgives all, why can’t i? Time to help us get back to the big dance . I can address business after the season. Me and Marshawn started a mission 2 years ago. I can’t let my Dawg down….Real talk.”

Chancellor missed all training camp, the preseason and Seattle’s first two regular-season games while seeking some sort of adjustment to a contract that had three years and $16.875 million remaining. By doing so, he subject himself to more than $1 million in fines and also forfeited a pair of game checks worth more than $267,000 apiece.

The Seahawks, meanwhile, were wary of the precedent that would be set by re-doing a contract with more than a year remaining, which was the reason general manager John Schneider said the team didn’t give into running back Marshawn Lynch when he was holding out before the 2014 season.

Chancellor’s contract has no money guaranteed beyond this season. He broke his silence about his holdout two weeks ago, telling the NFL Network that he wanted money from the final year of his contract moved up to next season but that he wasn’t seeking any new money.

Chancellor’s agent, Alvin Keels, Tweeted Wednesday: “Glad to see Kam back at work. The business side of the sport sucks at times. Some will understand it most won’t! #GoHawks”

The initial questions with Chancellor ending his holdout are:

1) What kind of resolution, if any, did the two sides come to regarding Chancellor’s contract? The line in Chancellor’s text about addressing business after the season suggests that he’s returning without any adjustment to his contract. That has since been reported as well.

2) Is Chancellor ready to play Sunday against Chicago? That isn’t a given considering how much time he’s missed.

The end to Chancellor’s holdout comes three days after the Seahawks fell to 0-2 with a loss at Green Bay. That start along with the way Seattle’s secondary has struggled in both losses could have been viewed as leverage for Chancellor. However, coach Pete Carroll said publicly on multiple occasions that nothing could happen over the first few weeks of the season to change the organization’s stance on Chancellor’s holdout.

In other words: the Seahawks weren’t budging one way or another, a realization that Chancellor has apparently come to.