Seahawks GM John Schneider on possible Richard Sherman trade: ‘We’ve kind of moved past it’

RENTON – In the latest indication that a Richard Sherman trade is unlikely, Seahawks general manager John Schneider said Monday that the team has “kind of moved past” the possibility of moving its All-Pro cornerback.

Speaking at his annual pre-draft press conference, Schneider said it would take an offer that blows the Seahawks away.

“Right now we’ve kind of moved past it and if somebody calls and goes crazy with something, then we’ll discuss it again,” Schneider said. “I don’t mean go crazy, but you know what I mean. Like, give you compensation where it’s something where you really, truly have to think about it and consider it, then we would have to consider it. And we could consider it because, like I said, it’s been a mutual thing. It’s OK. And we feel like it would clear cap room and we would be able to get younger, but that’s the only reason we’d do it. I mean, the guy’s one of the top cornerbacks in the league. You don’t just give him away.”

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Asked if there’s a cutoff point for when he’d like to have the situation resolved one way or another, Schneider said, “I think it’s pretty much on us right now.”

Schneider said Sherman is at team headquarters Monday along with safeties Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas, who were among a handful of Seahawks starters that weren’t in attendance last week for the start of the team’s voluntary offseason workout program. He said Sherman spoke last week with coach Pete Carroll.

Schneider’s comments on Monday echoed those he made last week to 710 ESPN Seattle, when he said that while the team remains open to a Sherman trade, the odds are against it happening. He also reiterated that getting younger and clearing cap space would be Seattle’s only reasons for trading Sherman, who just turned 29 and has $22.431 million in remaining salary over the final two years of his contract.

Schneider was asked on Monday why the team has been so transparent about the Sherman situation whereas it’s often guarded with information about personnel.

“I don’t like necessarily lying to people. I try to teach my boys not to lie about things, you know?” he said. “We just didn’t really feel like there was anything to hide. People say, ‘Well, why do you have your business out in the open?’ or whatever. It was basically already out there, people had been talking about it, there were rumors about it and that sort of thing. We have had conversations with teams. But he’s in a good place. He’s here today working. Earl’s here, Kam’s here. So we’re all just at a very good place.

“It’s one of those things, like if it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out and everybody’s OK with it. He met with Pete last week; they had another great conversation. Richard may see it as a fresh start for him, and we may see it as a way to clear some cap room and get younger, but neither side is like super urgent about it, if that makes sense.”