PHOENIX – Kam Chancellor knew all about the dreaded label that hung over his name – one no football player ever wants to hear: tweener.
That was five years ago, when he was projected as a hybrid defender out of Virginia Tech. Looking back now, it almost makes him chuckle that he fell to the fifth round in the 2010 draft to the Seattle Seahawks.
"I really don't know why I was passed over," he said. "They didn't know if I was going to be a safety or a linebacker. My speed was very questionable, they said. But you can't take the football out of a player. I feel like I was always a football player with a knack for the ball and I was a student of the game."
Now, a different label characterizes Chancellor's play for the Seahawks: enforcer. And though he's not the most important defender on Seattle's vaunted defense, his role is impossible to ignore. Chancellor intimidates. And with unparalleled size and strength for a safety, the 6-foot-3, 232-pounder gives Seattle's defense a unique ability that others in the NFL can't quite copy. If the Seahawks become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champions since the 2004 New England Patriots, Chancellor figures to be a big reason why.
"I do like to be the enforcer," Chancellor said Monday at the Arizona Grand Resort, where the team is staying before Super Bowl XLIX. "It just fits my type of play. I like to be physical because I like contact. I like to deliver big blows. I like making game-changing hits. I get that from watching a guy like (former Washington safety) Sean Taylor. It just pumps me up and gets me ready."
Like so many other players on Seattle's defense, opposing quarterbacks know where Chancellor is before the snap.
In many ways, Chancellor is a perfect fit for Seattle's defense. Because fellow safety Earl Thomas ranges from sideline to sideline and corners Richard Sherman and Byron Maxwell can lock up opposing receivers, Chancellor is free to adapt and vary his responsibilities from play to play. He can roam the center of the field, come in run support, and deliver ferocious hits to receivers who dare to come across the middle.
"We have always, as far back as I can remember, formulated schemes that allow you to draw individual strengths that you have," coach Pete Carroll said. "That is what we do. We try to find the unique qualities that our guys do have … and put them in position to do things they're really good at. And then we try to grow them. We found that when we do that, players can have success early in their careers and they can start to develop a confidence and they can build on that.
"So it's really on the coaches to have the flexibility to adapt to the strengths that you do have."
Chancellor, a former quarterback in high school, excels at anticipating and reacting quickly. He was huge in Seattle's divisional round victory against the Carolina Panthers, logging 11 tackles and one interception, which was returned for a touchdown. He was also instrumental in Seattle's NFC Championship Game victory against the Green Bay Packers.
But there's another label – perhaps a more important one – that Chancellor has come to embody for the Seahawks.
In November, the Seahawks looked far from a Super Bowl contender. The team was rife with tension, stemming from an October trade that shipped receiver Percy Harvin to the Jets. Reports of friction and different factions in Seattle's locker room emerged.
The team then held a meeting to address the disagreement that had taken over. Chancellor, according to several Seahawks players, was one of the most vocal members of the team, offering an emotional speech.
It may be one of the pivotal moments that helped inspire the Seahawks to get to this point.
Said Earl Thomas: "You can't reproduce what Kam brings to this team."
