Pete Carroll reacts to Kam Chancellor's holdout, Michael Bennett's unhappiness with contract

The main focus today has been on the Russell Wilson contract extension, but a secondary storyline is the apparent unhappiness that several Seahawks defenders have in their current contracts. All Pro safety Kam Chancellor has decided to hold out, while defensive tackle Michael Bennett, who threatened holdout, ended up showing up but expressed a feeling of disrespect from the Seahawks' front office.

Pete Carroll addressed both of these things when he talked to the media following practice.

"I think that I'm compassionate, I understand," he said, when asked for his reaction to the players' decisions. "I know they're trying to make the most of their opportunity and do what's best for them and try to turn the situation. They're difficult decisions, and they're hard for them, and their hearts are passionate."

As for Bennett?

"He loves this game," said Carroll. "He's a great football player on our team and he made the decision to come, and it's a tough choice. Sometimes when they sign, they love what they sign, and it looks different after a while and so I'm compassionate towards these guys, and try to help them through the process, talk them through it, make sure that they understand everything, and try to make the best decisions and support them all the way."

Michael Bennett signed a four-year, $32 million deal back in March last year, but after playing one season on that deal, is apparently having buyers' remorse on the contract he signed.

As for Kam, the Seahawks' starting strong safety signed his deal -- a five-year $29.23 million contract -- back in April of 2013. He, like Bennett, has three years left on his current contract, and the Seahawks have refused to negotiate (much) with players until the final year of their deal.

Carroll addressed Kam's holdout. He was surprisingly supportive, and effusive in his praise.

"We've been messaging back and forth, yeah," he said. "Let me say this too, nobody asked the question. Kam Chancellor is an amazing Seahawk, part of this team, we love him in every way, he stands for exactly what we want, about this game, being a Seahawk, playing for us and we want to make something happen, we're going to try to figure it out as we go through it, really we don't see any of the other side of it. Kam Chancellor is a champion warrior football player, part of this team and one of the ultimate leaders on this team too, so we want to have him back, we'd love to have him back with us."

Carroll talked about Kam's position, as well.

"He has his points. He's got his thoughts, he's a very smart guy. He's thought this out and made it very clear the choice this time."

Now, whether his points are good or not may not matter. It's a pretty tricky precedent to set -- renegotiating after two years of a five-year deal -- but we shall see.

Overall, regardless, "We don't see it as disruptive," said Carroll. "There's so much going on that everybody's pushing to make something happen. It isn't disruptive at this point, but we miss him and it's too early in the process to know the impact of it but we'd love to have him with us."

Chancellor faces fines of $30,000 for every day of camp he misses. The Seahawks can forgive those fines if they wish.