Mychal Kendricks sentencing hearing scheduled for Sept. 25

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The Seahawks will be able to start the season with linebacker Mychal Kendricks at their disposal. Whether he’ll be able to finish the year with the team will apparently be decided in late-September.

According to TMZ, the sentencing hearing for Kendricks stemming from a guilty plea last year for insider trading is set to Sept. 25. That would enable Kendricks to at least play in the first three games of the season before finding out his legal fate. The Seahawks have expected Kendricks to be available to play for them this season. He will be for most of the first month of the year. Beyond that is uncertain.

Kendricks could face up to 25 years in jail for the transgression. However, it is thought that the sentence will be far less punitive due to his cooperation with authorities against Damilare Sonoiki, who provided Kendricks with the information. Kendricks was initially scheduled to be sentenced in January. That date got pushed back to April, then postponed indefinitely until the September date was put in place. Kendricks was absent from practice on Monday to attend to “a business thing that he’s working on,” per head coach Pete Carroll.

Kendricks pleaded guilty to insider trading charges last September in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania. Kendricks admitted that he was given inside information about four companies that were about to be purchased by bigger companies, and that by buying stock with that information, he turned a profit of $1.2 million.

Kendricks appeared in just three games for Seattle after signing with the team following his guilty plea and subsequent release from the Cleveland Browns. An eight-game suspension and fractured tibia separately combined to limit his on-field contributions to the team last year. He re-signed with the team in March on a one-year deal.