Both of Seattle’s star safeties are at career crossroads — one seemingly talking about walking out, the other about holding out.
The short of it: Yeah, it looks like Kam Chancellor is done, but Earl Thomas is not going anywhere.
Chancellor’s Instagram post Friday was seen by most as a message that he is leaning toward retiring — or at least not playing again. Unlike Cliff Avril, he has been silent about his neck injury, but all signs point to the No. 1 Legionnaire of Boom likely being finished.
The only question has been whether he would make the team put him on injured reserve so he could collect his injury guarantees, which amount to $12 million over the next two years.
Meanwhile, there is no question that money is at the heart of Thomas’ concerns. Late in the season, he started rumbling about his contract and possibly playing for Dallas. This week, at the Pro Bowl in Florida, he doubled down on the contract talk with a subtle threat of a holdout.
Cliff Avril’s timeline for a decision about his career appears to be late April, and he reiterated that his recovery from neck surgery is more about regaining quality of life than about playing football again.
The Seahawks apparently have decided to allow DeShawn Shead to become a free agent, which means either they are just being nice (quite possible) or they prefer to keep Byron Maxwell instead.
After two days of talking by the players and Pete Carroll, we’ve learned a few tidbits about the Seahawks’ personnel and upcoming decisions as they sit out the playoffs for the first time in six years.
Earl Thomas is creating a lot of negative-energy waves as this season winds down. To some, it might seem like he is trying to build up a trade tsunami.
Why Mark Glowinski?
As Luke Joeckel returns to Jacksonville to face the team that made him the No. 2 pick in the 2013 draft, the Seahawks finally have put together a quintet of blockers that could carry them the rest of this season — and perhaps for the next few.
