Chancellor's return another challenge for Chicago Bears

As if the Seahawks didn't have enough reason to be hungry this Sunday against the Bears, they can add Kam Chancellor's return to the list.

The three-time Pro Bowl strong safety who coined the defense's nickname, "Legion of Boom," has ended his contract holdout. Still on his old deal, he returned to Seahawks practice on Wednesday, three days after he watched his secondary get carved up by Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in a loss that dropped them to 0-2.

His return to a struggling secondary and a disappointing team making its home debut in front of CenturyLink Field's "12th Man" crowd has the makings of a perfect storm.

"He's the heartbeat of that defense. He brings the swagger. He brings the attitude," offensive coordinator Adam Gase said of Chancellor, who had a game-high 10 tackles when the Seahawks beat Gase's and Fox's Broncos 43-8 in the Super Bowl in 2013. "Him being back is probably going to be an energy boost for them."

The Seahawks could use one. After leading the NFL in defense the last two seasons, the Seahawks surrendered 34 points in an overtime loss to the Rams and 27 in a loss to the Packers, a total worse than every NFL team except for the Raiders and Bears. Their pass defense is down from first last year to 12th this year, and their run defense has fallen from third to 15th.

Chancellor is one of the rare safeties who impacts both facets. He has 8 interceptions the last four years, and he finished last season sixth in the league with 33 stops, which Pro Football Focus defines as solo tackles constituting offensive failure.

"Sometimes, you get safeties and they come in in run support, but they'd rather not. He'd rather do that," Matt Forte said.

The 0-2 Bears will face many offensive challenges on Sunday, particularly if Jay Cutler (hamstring) and Alshon Jeffery (calf) don't play, as expected. The Seahawks have Pro Bowlers at each level of the defense, including three in the secondary in Chancellor, safety Earl Thomas and cornerback Richard Sherman.

Identifying where each one is will be key, but both Zach Miller and Joshua Bellamy said the challenge is greater with the safety who hasn't played this season.

"We're not sure what he's going to do or how he's going to be," Miller said, "but I think all of us are expecting him to be the Kam Chancellor that he always is."

Figuring out that part of his game is easy, Miller said:

"He runs around and hits people."

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