It seems NFL front office members across the nation are watching the Seattle Seahawks' battle with strong safety Kam Chancellor with serious interest. Chancellor's holdout has now lasted into the regular season and may very well have played a significant hand in the Seahawks season-opening loss to NFC West rivals, the St. Louis Rams. It's a holdout that, according to a report from Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, will continue for another week. While the Seahawks brass and Seattle fans would no doubt prefer to see Chancellor return to the fold as quickly as possible, it seems those aforementioned NFL front office members may not share that desire and, in fact, may have something of a vested interest in seeing the Seahawks remain firm in their refusal to pony up the dough for their big strong safety.
Citing a league source, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reports that "multiple teams" fear that more players will engage in contract disputes and, further, may prove willing to holdout in an effort to see their deals restructured, thanks in large part to the ever-growing NFL salary cap.
"After slow growth from 2011 through 2013 (with a little hocus-pocus - and cap penalties imposed on Dallas and Washington - keeping the cap from shrinking in 2012), the spending limit has gone up by $10 million per team in each of the last two years. So guys who signed contracts at a time when the cap was creeping may now want some sort of an adjustment to account for the fact that, in comparison, it's skyrocketing," writes Florio.
This isn't the first time that it has been suggested that other NFL teams were concerned over the Seahawks approach to the Chancellor situation. After handing a new deal to running back Marshawn Lynch - the second time Seattle GM John Schneider has revisited Lynch's contract - the Seahawks also handed big dollars to middle linebacker Bobby Wagner and quarterback Russell Wilson. While each player certainly deserved their payday, it was said to be disconcerting to others in the league that Schneider's operating procedure simply seemed to be to open up the checkbook and pay the problems away.
Chancellor, despite his unhappiness with his deal, set a record for strong safety contracts when he signed his deal in 2012. He is by no means underpaid as compared to the rest of the market. Of course, Chancellor is a very unique player and does not compare to the rest of the market in terms of overall play or production.
With the salary cap rising as the league continues to grow, it seems NFL owners and executives fear that the players will then assume they deserve a larger piece of the pie - how dare they? - and the money-centric league, of course, doesn't want that. Despite skyrocketing revenues, penny-pinching owners don't want to have to hand out anymore guaranteed money than they absolutely, unequivocally are forced to. No matter that the players actually are the product on the field - the owners control every aspect of the game beyond the game and will do anything and everything in their power to keep themselves from being put into an even semi-un-advantageous position.
As has been evidenced by the stadium disputes currently ongoing in Oakland, St. Louis and San Diego, these billionaire owners won't dip into their own pockets to finance stadiums, instead holding the threat of relocation over the heads of city officials until finally getting what they want.
While this may wind up having little impact on the Seahawks situation with Chancellor, it's at least interesting to note that pressure from other front offices could be influencing the manner in which Schneider and Seattle approach the dispute.
