Seattle Seahawks strong safety Kam Chancellor (31) celebrates a hit on St. Louis Rams' Stedman Bailey in the first half of an NFL football game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, in Seattle. (AP Photo/John Froschauer)

Breaking down the Kam Chancellor extension

With the new Kam Chancellor extension, the Seahawks will actually save around $1.5-2Mish against the cap in 2017. With a previous cap hit of $8.125M in 2017 under the old contract, his cap hit under the new deal is $6.64M. The deal contains a $10M signing bonus and cap hits for the following years:

2017: $6.64M
2018: $9.8M
2019: $13M
2020: $14.5M

Here is the contract as it currently stands:

Here’s several important things to note:

  1. $13M fully guaranteed at signing. It appears only the signing bonus and the 2017 base salary are fully guaranteed upon signing. Full 2018 base salary and $5.2M of 2019 base salary will vest into more guarantees (waiting on more notes from a source on this). 
  2. Seahawks can get out of this contract after 2018. 2020 is highly unlikely, and 2019 is iffy.
  3. Seahawks save $2M against the cap in 2017 with this extension.
  4. $500K roster bonuses in all four years.
  5. The other $100K in bonuses for 2017 is for the Pro Bowl + playoffs.
  6. Roster bonuses ($500K each year) for 2018-2020 is $31.25K per game for the 46 man roster.

Gut reaction: I am very surprised that only the 2017 year/signing bonus is fully guaranteed upon signing. Curious to know the contingencies on the vesting guarantees for the later years. I’ll update this article with more details as we find out more.

Overall: I am incredibly satisfied with this deal. Seattle limited the full guarantees at signing to only $13M — and can get out of this contract after 2018 if need be. John Schneider killed it.