Per Jason La Canfora (EDIT: Mike Garafolo piggybacks with "expectation that it'll be done soon", Rapaport confirms talks are going well):
The Seattle Seahawks have made considerable progress towards getting corner Richard Sherman signed to a long-term contract, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. Both sides are hopefully of getting the deal done prior to the May 8-10 NFL Draft.
The Seahawks are prepared to make Sherman the NFL's highest-paid corner -- and the deal will surpass Darrelle Revis's $12M compensation for 2014 -- the questions remains by just how much.
Several league sources anticipate the contract will be worth more than $13M a season when finalized, with the Seahawks reluctant to go to $14M thus far.
(...)
Sherman's new agents, Ben Dogra and Jimmy Sexton of CAA, have been in dialogue with the Seahawks for quite some time and the negotiations have been amicable and productive. While it would be unfair to say a deal is imminent, it is also hardly out of the question it gets concluded in the next few weeks (...)
Word was initially that the team is prioritizing Earl Thomas but it always seemed like that's relative, they'll both get done, and it doesn't really matter who gets done first, they'll both be among the top-paid players at their positions, which makes sense, because they're both either the best or top-3 at their positions, depending on who you ask (if you're asking here, they're both the best).
Getting these contracts done before the draft would be a positive simply in giving us more to talk about (good Frith is this period painful, look at me posting a story on this random irrelevant La Canfora report. We miss you Danny!), but also in there being no distractions as we keep moving forward in the off-season. Luckily there have been no signs that the dialogue with either player has been anything but good.
The one part that may surprise some is the contract number mentions, $13-14M a year. The current highest APY is Revis' $12M (de facto, his contract is oddly structured), followed by Brandon Carr at $10M. North of $13M would put Sherman above the best-paid CB in the league and above the average of the top-5 by a pretty significant margin. This is not really surprising, he is the best and is looking to be paid like the best. And please do keep in mind that while APY is important we'd need to see the actual contract structure, guarantees, bonuses and the like before making sense of any new contract.
If you were expecting a significant hometown discount for young players like these, then well, it's probably not happening. And that's fine, it's how the NFL has always worked, it's how the NFL will continue to work, including for us. Pay the man what he's due, essentially.