Seattle Seahawks: Kam Chancellor’s dark horse Hall of Fame candidacy

Kam Chancellor’s career ended far too soon, but the former Seattle Seahawks enforcer will have a shot at a lasting legacy in Canton.

The Seattle Seahawks recently cut Kam Chancellor, ending the former Pro Bowler’s stint with the team. Chancellor suffered a neck injury during the 2017 season that left him at risk of partial paralysis if he continued playing football. As a result, Chancellor sat out last season but remained on the Seahawks roster — even though it was widely known he’d never play again. Now it seems like the only move left for Chancellor is to officially retire and look forward to the rest of his life.

With Chancellor’s playing career over, it feels like an appropriate time to evaluate what his legacy will be in the league. To be clear, this isn’t about his legacy with the Seahawks — that should already be pretty secure. Instead, this is more along the lines of what Chancellor’s chances are of reaching Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

To be quite clear, he’s a long shot, a very very long shot. That’s what I think makes his case so interesting though. So, we’re going to be going through Chancellor’s accolades, qualifications, how he compares to other great safeties and if/how he can get enshrined in Canton.

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Chancellor saw action in eight NFL seasons. The former fifth-round pick became a starter in his second season in the NFL, when he made the first of four Pro Bowl appearances. He was named a Second Team All-Pro in 2013 and 2014 and he was ranked in NFL Network’s NFL Top 100 five times (2014-18).

The former enforcer in the Legion of Boom, Chancellor racked up 606 combined tackles, 12 interceptions, 44 passes defensed, two sacks, nine forced fumbles, and a safety. He was a part of Seattle’s two NFC Championship teams and performed exceptionally in Super Bowl XLVIII, nearly winning the game’s MVP award. Despite all of these accolades and accomplishments, Chancellor still falls short of the normal Hall of Fame standards and he’s disadvantaged by his position.

The Pro Football Hall of Fame has not been kind to safeties recently. More than qualified players like John Lynch and Steve Atwater are still sitting on the ballot, waiting to hear their names called. Chancellor doesn’t have to same credentials as Lynch or Atwater.

Lynch, another hard-hitting safety whose interception numbers don’t encompass his impact, went to nine Pro Bowls, made two First All-Pro Teams and two Second All-Pro Teams. Like Chancellor, Lynch was also part of a legendary defense (which featured Derrick Brooks, Ronde Barber, Simeon Rice, and Warren Sapp) that won a championship. Yet, he still doesn’t have a gold jacket.

Atwater was also a heavy hitter, and he racked up eight Pro Bowl appearances, two First Team All-Pro selections, one Second Team All-Pro selection and two Super Bowl victories. The 11-year veteran has just as good a resume as Lynch, yet he doesn’t have a gold jacket either and the voters don’t seem to be in a rush to rectify this mistake.

One thing Chancellor might have going for him is his playing style. In an era where the game has been sanitized to the point where any hard hit has a better than average shot at getting flagged, Chancellor was a rare behemoth who brought back flashes of days long gone.

The rules of the game have changed to protect players, and rightly so, but Chancellor walked a fine line that allowed him to record a whole highlight reel of big time hits. The only issue is that both Lynch and Atwater had similar power and explosiveness. Maybe being a feared tackler will mean more in the modern NFL though.

Chancellor’s short career also has the chance to be beneficial. We’ve seen a change of narrative with regards to players whose careers were shortened by injuries in recent years. Specifically, Terrell Davis and Kenny Easley both fit into this category and were recently inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Easley will historically be tied to Chancellor — and Earl Thomas as well — because he was a great safety and a career Seahawk. His career did hit heights that Chancellor’s didn’t, Easley was the 1984 Defensive Player of the Year, but Seattle has always strongly supported their legends. When Chancellor retires, he’ll have the full backing of the city for his eventual candidacy.

There are very few reasons for Chancellor to make the Hall of Fame. Most stats seem to point to him not getting in, especially when his career accolades are examined next to other safeties either in Canton or on the ballot.

However, we will have to wait and see how historical context alters how Chancellor is viewed. He might not have to wait a while, just like Easley did, but there will always be a chance for Chancellor to make Canton. He has built a legacy that is tied to the most dominant defense of the current era, and that will help keep the door open for him, even if it is just a crack.