Trading Sherman may be necessary for Seahawks to avoid salary-cap woes
The Seattle Seahawks' willingness to trade away star cornerback Richard Sherman may have more to do with securing the team's future financial situation than a rumored rift between Sherman and his coaches.
Sherman turned 29 years old last month and appears to still be in his prime as a player. His salary places him among the NFL's highest-paid cornerbacks, but few would dispute that he's worth every penny.
But it's not that simple for the Seahawks, a team that won Super Bowl XLVII four seasons ago with a quarterback playing on a rookie deal and a roster stocked with young, cheap talent.
Since that game, the Seahawks have signed their best players to the following long-term pacts:
- Earl Thomas, 2014: 5 years, $44.72 million
- Jimmy Graham, 2014: 4 years, $40 million
- K.J. Wright, 2014: 4 years, $27 million
- Russell Wilson, 2015: 5 years, $89.14 million
- Bobby Wagner, 2015: 5 years, $43.97 million
- Doug Baldwin, 2016: 5 years, $47.5 million
- Michael Bennett, 2016: 4 years, $39 million
And this list doesn't even include the five-year, $58.78-million contract Sherman signed in the spring of 2014.
The Seahawks are no longer a team that can enjoy the luxury of cheap players. Though they aren't in immediate danger of surpassing the NFL's salary cap threshold this season or next, the Seahawks must look forward and consider making difficult decisions to keep their finances in healthy order.
Kam Chancellor is in a contract year and will surely be seeking a sizable raise next spring, and both Sherman and Earl Thomas come off the books after 2018. The Seahawks probably can't afford to commit three mega-deals to aging secondary players, and a strong case can be made that safeties are more important to the team's defensive scheme than cornerbacks.
And so, with Sherman owed roughly $11 million in each of the next two seasons and carrying a cap hit of roughly $13 million each year, it may be prudent for the Seahawks to move on from him while they can still get maximum value in return.
In a draft rich in cornerback talent, the Seahawks may be better off flipping Sherman for an early draft pick and perhaps a useful player, too.
It will be a painful move to make, with Sherman's boisterous personality one of the trademarks of this highly successful era of Seahawks football, but the smart move is rarely the easiest move.