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Kam Chancellor: "It's my job to keep" at Safety for the Seahawks

Seahawks' sophomore safety Kam Chancellor had a pretty interesting tweet today on the state of the depth chart at safety for the Seahawks:

Was just blessed with a great opportunity today, Its my job to keep........less than a minute ago via TweetCaster Favorite Retweet Reply

 

We can only assume he means that the Seahawks have told him that he's their pre-camp starting strong safety, a position that was held down by Lawyer Milloy last season. This tweet also seems to indicate the Hawks have no plans to re-sign the wily veteran and former Husky. Now, am I taking this tweet as truth or an official notice on anything? Absolutely not. But it's a good segue to talk about our young secondary.

We've talked a lot about Chancellor this offseason and speculated whether he'd be the guy the Hawks would look to to fill the spot next to Earl Thomas. Rookie Mark LeGree has a lot of talent and could steal some snaps from Chancellor in certain sets, but it looks like the safety out of Virginia Tech will have the chance to prove his mettle. 

In the Seahawks' 4-3 Under defense (that we described in detail in a multiple-part series, and I recommend you re-visit when you get the chance), the safeties have many responsibilities. In a Cover-1 or Cover-3, they are responsible in pass protection deep and stopping the run when needed so they have to be instinctual and quick. On one play Earl Thomas could be up at the line playing man-to-man coverage on the slot receiver, the next be blitzing from the edge, and the next dropping back into the deep centerfield to protect against the deep pass. Same goes for Chancellor.

In a Cover-2, something you may see the Hawks run frequently, both safeties need 'range, closing speed, tackling skill, and enough run-pass recognition ability to not get fooled by play-action.' Chancellor is known for his hard-hitting run support at 6'3, 232, but it gets forgotten that he played free safety and even cornerback as well while at Virginia Tech. Chancellor was drafted with versatility in this regard and with experience at multiple positions in mind (I would guess). Looks like we'll get to see what he can do.

Thoughts?


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