Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider did his best Thursday to downplay the trade rumors surrounding cornerback Richard Sherman, although it sounds like a deal involving the four-time Pro Bowl pick remains possible.
“Right now, I don’t think the odds (of a trade) are very good,” Schneider said on the “Danny, Dave and Moore” show on KIRO-AM, according to ESPN.com. “But if somebody comes cruising along and something happens, and we do something, it happens.”
This isn’t exactly groundbreaking. It basically suggests the Seahawks simply haven’t received an offer they like to this point yet are staying open-minded. It’s not like Seattle needs to trade Sherman right away, especially with the NFL draft coming up next week.
“We have constant communication with him. I talked to him this evening. So it’s cool. Everything’s fine,” Schneider said Thursday, per ESPN.com. “I just think that the only reason we would do it is to basically create some cap room and try to become a younger football team. But that’s just one option.”
Initially, it was somewhat surprising to hear Sherman’s name come up in trade rumors, as he’s widely been considered one of the NFL’s best cornerbacks in recent years and has been a huge contributor amid Seattle’s success. Plus, he’s under contract for two more seasons.
But ESPN’s Adam Schefter recently reported that Sherman initially requested the trade. Perhaps he’s looking for a change of scenery after spending his first six seasons in Seattle.
“It’s one of those things where the dialogue we have with our guys is not somebody comes bashing through the door like you would see in a football movie or something like, ‘I demand to be traded!’ ” Schneider said, according to ESPN.com. “It’s not like that. It just doesn’t work that way.
“The way I would answer it is we just have this dialogue with guys all the time, and I think he’d admit that he had a rough year. So he’s looking for maybe a new spark, and he’s either going to find that here in Seattle or he’s going to find it somewhere else. But odds are he’s going to find it here.”
In other words, the Seahawks aren’t trading Sherman … unless they do.
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