After weeks of trade rumors involving Seattle Seahawks Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman, head coach Pete Carroll acknowledged that there is no chance of a deal in 2017.
“Yes. In one respect, it would be because it went after draft time,” said Carroll. “But people can always call you, and there were some people, there were some conversations. I don’t think they’re going to change. I don’t think anybody’s going to offer us anything that would make it worthwhile because there’s no draft involved and all that kind of stuff. But that’s always out there. There’s always opportunities to trade. But the likelihood is like zero percent; it seems like. Teams don’t want to give up stuff. They don’t want to trade at times like this, and it’s really hard to navigate through a trade with experienced players during draft time. It just doesn’t happen very often.”
You can breathe easy, 12th Man, but maybe not for long. Carroll doesn’t sound overly thrilled to be keeping Sherman, arguably the team’s best player. In fact, Carroll made it very clear that Sherman is, in fact, for sale to the highest bidder, but no one wanted to meet the reserve price. And, now that the 2017 NFL Draft has passed and any potential deal wouldn’t include a first-round pick and a few other selections, there is no point in trying to make the interested teams up their ante.
“Everybody on our team is available to somebody that wants to come get them if they want to trade for them,” said Carroll. “We don’t want to trade guys. We want to keep our guys. But we have to in an effort to always work to be better and help our team. We’ve got to listen and all that. So, we went through that process. There was a very open conversation about that. There was no animosity at all.”
The NFL is a business. Teams need to win, and sometimes you need to leverage your top assets in order to pave the way for the future. Under Carroll, the Seahawks have won one Super Bowl and came within one play of winning a second consecutive one, so the man knows what he’s doing.
While what’s best for the team doesn’t always make its fans happy, you need to trust that Carroll and the Seahawks have some legitimate reason for any decision they make this offseason—but most likely next.