‘The Guy’ Kam Chancellor tutors awed Ryan Neal, excelling at his old Seahawks safety spot
The feel-good story of the Seahawks’ defense so far this season gets even better.
Ryan Neal has been adopted by a Seattle superhero.
Kam Chancellor called Pete Carroll last week. The legendary Seahawks Super Bowl champion redefined the position of strong safety in the NFL before having to retire because of a neck injury in the 2017 season. He asked his old coach for Neal’s phone number.
“Before practice, actually, Coach Carroll tapped me on the shoulder: ‘Hey, you know, Kam wants to talk to you, reach out to you. Come on by office and get his number,’” Ryan said Wednesday.
Um, say whaaaaaat? Kam Chancellor wants to talk to me?
The glint remaining in Neal’s eye almost a week later showed the three-year practice-squad player is still in awe.
“At first, I’m a fan. I’m like, ‘Oh, god! Kam! This is Kam!’” Neal said.
He wasn’t apologizing for it, either.
“I mean, coming up in the football world, everybody watched the Legion of Boom,” Neal said.
“It was like, ‘Man! This is Kam Chancellor! This is The Guy!’”
The Guy wanted to give this new guy some advice on playing his old position in the Seahawks defense. Neal has been playing strong safety in Carroll’s schemes since Sept. 27. That was the day All-Pro Jamal Adams, the best strong safety Seattle’s had since Chancellor, strained his groin in the fourth quarter of his team’s win over Dallas.
Neal, playing the first snaps on defense of his NFL career that day, intercepted Dak Prescott in the end zone on the next-to-last play. His first career interception secured the Seahawks’ 38-31 victory over the Cowboys.
With Adams still out for last weekend’s game at Miami, Neal made his first career start. Neal intercepted the Dolphins’ third pass of the game — yes, he snared two interceptions in four passes — to set up Chris Carson’s touchdown run. That gave Seattle an early lead it over the Dolphins it never relinquished.
Neal also had six tackles. He knocked down two passes. He was up aggressively on run plays and short passes at the line of scrimmage. He ran deep with receivers to keep them from getting behind him, as receivers had all September on the Seahawks while they allowed 1,292 yards passing. That was the most surrendered in league history through three games.
Neal played with an aggression that had to make Chancellor, “The Enforcer,” proud. And Seattle improved to 4-0 for the only second time in franchise history.
The first time was in 2013. That was the season Chancellor and the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.
“What I’m surprised at is how he made the transition so comfortably,” Carroll said of Neal. “He hasn’t played a lot of (NFL) football, so you weren’t sure what was going to happen when he gets into the game. But he’s really carried his preparation to the game field.”
Why is Carroll surprised? He sent Neal to get prepared by Chancellor.
What did the coach expect to happen from that? Failure?
“He looked very comfortable and at ease. Very aggressive. Not hesitant, at all,” Carroll said.
“He’s played smart. He’s played good, solid football for us.”
Neal is 24 years old. He’s from Hammond, Indiana. He describes himself as quiet and not seeking attention, by nature.
So much for that, with the way he’s playing right now.
He played at Southern Illinois. He went undrafted in 2018, then was an afterthought of the Philadelphia Eagles when they cut him months after signing him in 2018. The Atlanta Falcons and the Seahawks also cut him, in 2019 and just last month.
Neal has gone from cut three times in two years and wanting to quit football, venting about it to his patient fiancee, to starting for an undefeated team to getting mentored by Kam Chancellor.
“I was like, ‘Man, this is incredible!’” Neal said, still sounding amazed.
The legend has not just reviewed Neal’s film from playing the last 29 snaps of the Cowboys game and all 71 of Seattle’s defensive plays at Miami last weekend. Chancellor has been getting Neal’s plays in each day’s practice sent to him remotely to critique, too.
It’s one thing for a young player — any player — to get that kind of hands-on, personal mentoring from his position coach.
It’s an other-worldy experience for a practice-squad escapee to be getting that kind of personal tutoring from Kam Chancellor.
Yeah, Neal’s shaking his head, too.
“For me to play in similar defenses that he played in, it was the best thing ever for him just reach out and tell me exactly how he saw how it, how he saw things,” Neal said.
“He was breaking down my clips and just telling me what to look at, and all that.
“I mean, it was coolest — probably one of the coolest experiences I’ve had, you know, being in the league so far. Just getting that kind of advice from a legendary dude.
“So it was super cool, man. Probably one of the coolest things I’ve done so far.”
Neal will continue to get the chances to put Chancellor’s teaching to use. He will make his second career start Sunday night when the Seahawks host the Minnesota Vikings (1-3).
Carroll said Wednesday Adams will miss his second straight game. The team wants to give him another game week, plus next week’s bye, to heal the groin. They believe that will set up Adams to start the final 11 games and what they hope is the team’s eighth playoff appearance in nine seasons into January.
And Neal will have that long to show off more of what he has learned from the best strong safety of his generation.
He’s impressed so quickly, Carroll said this week Neal has earned the right for the coaches to find ways to keep playing him even after Adams returns. That could mean as the new dime, sixth defensive back instead of Lano Hill. The number-two strong safety until Neal’s emergence has missed the last two games with a back injury.
The Seahawks suddenly don’t seem in a hurry for Hill to return. Not with Neal’s instant excellence.
“For right now, he’s playing, you know. And I’m really happy about that,” Carroll said.
“Really happy for him, too. I mean, he’s a great kid.”
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 5:45 AM.
