Throughout much of the offseason, there has been much uncertainty surrounding All-Pro safety Kam Chancellor's future in the NFL centered on health status concerning his neck.
The Seattle Seahawks have kept the window open for the last few months on the possibility of bringing back Chancellor next season. With that in mind, the 30-year-old took to social media to announce that he's going to retire from the NFL after eight years in the league.
This is a disappointing end to what was a highly productive career where he established himself as one of the top safeties in the league behind his hard-hitting playing style. Kam Chancellor's stellar play helped him earn numerous accolades such as four Pro Bowl selections and two Second-Team All-Pro nods.
It now puts the Seahawks without one of their key pieces in the secondary that was a major part of their highly-touted “Legion of Boom” that anchored arguably the best defense in the league that helped him win the franchise's first Super Bowl while reaching that stage in two consecutive years.
Chancellor had suffered his neck injury on Nov. 9 against the Arizona Cardinals and missed the remainder of the season. He had continued to undergo several more tests over the last several months to help determine whether he can get back on the field. But even with his injury, the team still opted to let his $6.8 million salary for the 2018 campaign become guaranteed.
The Seahawks have likely known that this may be the case as the team had remained away from truly addressing the situation around him in the first couple of months in the offseason workouts. This now allows for Chancellor to move forward with this next stage of his life after the NFL.