Chancellor just as good as Sherman, Thomas

For the past three weeks, Seattle Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor has been holding out of training camp. In the majority of holdouts, players don’t miss any time during the regular season – either he gets paid, or he ends his holdout. And most expect Chancellor to be on the field for Week 1.

However, if he does end up missing time, he will be sorely missed on the Seattle defense.

Chancellor is our third-highest ranked safety entering 2015 in terms of PFF rating, at 88.6. There are a few NFL safeties who are better against the run, and a few who are better in coverage, but it’s hard to find any who are better at both. Only Eric Weddle, Will Hill and Chancellor have PFF ratings above 85 in both run defense and coverage among safeties.

Chancellor had 24 run stops last year when lined up within eight yards of the line of scrimmage, which was second-best at the position. From Week 11 to Week 16, he had an incredible six-game stretch during which he allowed just four of 10 passes thrown his way to be caught — for just 18 yards, along with two passes defended.

While Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas get all of the attention in the Legion of Boom, Chancellor is just as good of a player.

He becomes even more valuable to the Seahawks when considering who his replacement would be if he misses time. His 2014 backup Jeron Johnson left for Washington. In the Seahawks’ first preseason game, DeShawn Shead and Steven Terrell took the first team safety snaps. Both players had below-average grades in the preseason game and have a combined 133 career regular-season snaps. Even if Chancellor ends his holdout and returns, the Seahawks defense could be in trouble if they get unlucky with injuries.