Richard Sherman will play for the Seahawks in 2017

You could say that there was months of “speculation” that the Seattle Seahawks were shopping Richard Sherman, but that wouldn’t be entirely accurate since the Seahawks and Sherman both confirmed that he was on the trade market. The two sides amicably explored their options for a disunion, but in the end no team was willing to pay the price of a first round pick and a veteran player to acquire Sherman. With the draft now over, it would be safe to assume that Seattle is finished exploring a Sherman trade, but assume no longer; Pete Carroll confirmed on Thursday that there is now a 0-percent chance that Sherman is traded this year.

For the most part, this is great news for the Seahawks that Sherman isn’t going anywhere. He’s an elite cornerback who has continued to succeed even after he was asked to trail number one receivers last season, a point of criticism for Sherman haters that should now be in the past. (It won’t be though.) He’s also quite affordable, costing just about $11 million/season over the next two years. However, Sherman was on the market for a reason, and most of that had to do with the fact that he’s been hyper-critical of the coaches since the team became a bit less competitive over the last two seasons.

Sherman and Carroll (and Kris Richard and Darrell Bevell and Doug Baldwin and so on and so on) will have to find a way to share a locker room and sideline harmoniously in 2017, because that too could be a factor in Seattle’s success. With DeShawn Shead recovering from a torn ACL and Earl Thomas from a broken leg, Sherman’s importance to the secondary is now bigger than ever. The Legion of Boom just got a huge boost of youth from the draft and will need a vocal leader like Sherman to set the example of how to play Pete Carroll football. Will Sherman be up for that? He’s been one of the best people in the world at it since 2011, so let’s hope that continues for at least another year.