Surgery-free – for a change – Kam Chancellor savoring ‘my strongest offseason’

RENTON, Wash. – All the attention’s been focused on who hasn’t practiced during the Seattle Seahawks’ ongoing organized team activities.

Russell Wilson, Jimmy Graham, Cliff Avril, Earl Thomas, Michael Bennett, Bruce Irvin and Marshawn Lynch have been absent for varying reasons – from attending funerals in Florida last week for the first three to resting a repaired shoulder for Thomas.

Bennett and Irvin are not happy about contract situations and are skipping the technically voluntary workouts as the only statements they can make without getting fined. Lynch is doing what he usually does until training camp in mid-summer.

Yet potentially far more important to the Seahawks’ 2015 season has been a particular veteran starter who has been participating in all offseason drills. For a change.

For the first five offseasons Kam Chancellor has been in the NFL, spring has been about rehabilitation, not renewal.

But he says this offseason has been his best yet. He and All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman are the most remarkable participants of the OTAs that resumed Monday and continue today at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton.

“I feel great,” Chancellor said this week with a grin. “Back to football form. Feel fast. Feel strong. I just feel good out there.”

The thumping strong safety and team leader is the player perhaps most respected and admired by his peers on the two-time defending NFC champions. That’s for his leadership, hard hits and guts in playing through pain. Last year at this time he was recovering from his most recent procedure, on his hip, and he dragged that leg through much of the early 2014 season.

He seemed destined for yet another offseason surgery a few months ago. Chancellor appeared out of February’s Super Bowl when he got tangled with a teammate and banged knees going for a pass at the end of the Seahawks’ Friday practice at Arizona State University two days before Super Bowl 49. He initially feared a more extensive injury and said he thought he might miss the game – until, he said, his teammates gathered around and prayed with him.

A day later, he was moving around on the knee in a walkthrough, a feat coach Pete Carroll that day called miraculous. On Super Bowl Sunday he tested the knee pregame, then played all four quarters against New England wearing a brace over a torn medial collateral ligament and bruised knee.

Chancellor said he had the same MCL injury while playing in college at Virginia Tech. That further strengthened his belief he could play through it.

After he took two weeks off, Chancellor merely rested, trained and refreshed.

The bone spurs that had him contemplating ankle surgeries after two painful, uncharacteristically plodding games last September? No one even mentions those anymore.

Asked how much better he is feeling compared to last year, he replied “Any year.”

“I think this is the strongest offseason I’ve had since I’ve been in the league,” said Chancellor, who entered in 2010. “I’ve been actually able to train in the offseason instead of having surgeries.”

Sherman initially was told he may need ligament-replacement surgery on the elbow he hurt in January’s NFC championship; Chancellor slammed into it while they made a tackle on a Green Bay Packer at the sideline. Like Chancellor, Sherman played through the Super Bowl with that injury then needed only rest instead of surgery.

Sherman’s been lined up the past week next to Chancellor in Seattle’s first-string secondary that also has DeShawn Shead at free safety while Thomas recovers into July from shoulder surgery. Offseason free-agent addition Cary Williams from Philadelphia has been at departed Byron Maxwell’s old spot at cornerback opposite Sherman.

Besides feeling refreshed, Chancellor senses the Seahawks have a renewed focus after coming within 1 yard in the final seconds against New England on Feb. 1 from winning a second consecutive Super Bowl. He believes Wilson’s interception at the goal line and the defense allowing the Patriots two late touchdowns to win it have re-motivated the players.

“Oh yeah, I told a lot of people, it feels like this offseason, everybody worked their hardest,” Chancellor said. “I’ve seen guys out here busting their tails, the whole offseason going fast-tempo. … We’re more focused, more driven. We’re just hungry for the first game of the year.”