Pete Carroll: Likelihood of Seahawks trading Richard Sherman now at ‘like 0 percent’
May 4, 2017, 11:13 AM | Updated: 12:08 pm
The Seahawks released veteran CB Richard Sherman this March. (AP)
(AP)
The NFL Draft has come and gone and Richard Sherman is still a member of the Seattle Seahawks. From head coach Pete Carroll’s perspective, that means that the team’s star cornerback is here to stay.
Carroll told “Brock and Salk” Thursday morning that the team listened to offers for Sherman but that the window for trading the 29-year-old All Pro has passed. However, when 710 ESPN Seattle’s Brock Huard asked specifically whether the Sherman trade talks are over, Carroll hedged his statement.
“Yes,” Carroll responded, before adding. “In one respect, because it went after draft time but people can always call you and there were some people, there were some conversations. … I don’t think anybody could offer us anything that would make it worthwhile at this point because there’s no draft involved and all that kind of stuff.
“That’s always out there, there’s always opportunities to trade,” Carroll added. “We would say that everybody’s untouchable but we always have to listen to the opportunities as we always do to compete to make our team better. That’s just part of the business and it’s not the smooth part of the business … but the likelihood (of Sherman being traded) 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.”
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Trade rumors have been rampant this offseason regarding Sherman, which came off the heels of a season in which he expressed his displeasure over Seattle’s offensive play-calling and had some high-profile sideline outbursts and disputes with the media. Sherman, Carroll and general manager John Schneider all spoke publicly about the possibility of an offseason trade in recent months.
Carroll said he’s had conversations with Sherman recently and when asked how he would characterize their relationship, Carroll responded that “it’s as good as it’s ever been.”
“We spent really significant time working through the stuff that we wanted to talk about from last year,” he said. “He was open and willing to talk about it.”
Carroll reiterated that the Seahawks are always listening to offers about ways to make the team better and that Sherman is aware of that. Carroll said there is “no animosity at all” and that Sherman is excited to get back on the field. Carroll said that he’s even excited for Sherman to ratchet up his intensity further.
“He’s talked really clearly about his focus going forward. He wants to really recapture the intensity that he’s always brought and he feels like he can do that,” Carroll said. “Really he adjusted some two or three years ago and I think it’s time for us to continue to dig into him and make sure that he’s really at the height of his game intensity-wise. That may worry you guys, it doesn’t worry me at all.
“I love that thought, but also there’s time to make good decisions and good choices in regards to supporting his teammates and team and all that, and he’s really on point. So I’m excited to see that element in our team this year coming back, and we need his experience and his play-making. And any of that trade-talk stuff, John did a great job of just letting you guys know what’s going on, and we played it out and we did exactly what we needed to do – we got him back playing for us.”
