So much for the door being open for Richard Sherman to return to the Seahawks.
Barely 24 hours after one of the franchise’s most pivotal players was released, he agreed on Saturday to a three-year, $39.15 million contract with a team that has been one of the Seahawks’ most bitter rivals — the San Francisco 49ers.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter first reported the agreement after having also reported earlier in the day that “San Francisco is first up on former Seahawks’ CB Richard Sherman’s visit list – and there’s a real chance it’s his last visit, too.”
The $13 million per year average tops the $11 million Sherman had been slated to receive from the Seahawks in 2018 before his release on Friday, which came after the team asked if he would be willing to take a pay cut and he said no. But according to Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network, the deal is heavily incentive-laden to give the 49ers a hedge in case Sherman has any issues recovering from the Achilles injury that ended his 2017 season. According to Pelissero, the contract includes a $5 million signing bonus in 2018 plus a $2 million base salary, $2 million in bonuses for being on the 46-man gameday active roster, $1 million in playtime incentives and a $3 million bonus if he makes the Pro Bowl.
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Unlimited Digital Access: $1 for 4 weeksSteve Wyche of the NFL Network tweeted that Sherman said “I’m excited. A lot of HOF DBs (Hall of Fame defensive backs) have gone through this incredible organization and I am looking to uphold that standard,” in response to agreeing to sign with the 49ers.
One key aspect of Sherman’s visit to San Francisco was a physical the 49ers planned to give Sherman to assess where he is in his recovery from an Achilles tendon injury suffered on Nov. 9 against Arizona, a game that now is assured of having been his last in Seattle uniform
But the 49ers must have gotten the news they wanted to agree to a deal with Sherman, who started 99 straight games for Seattle from 2011 until limping off the field with a torn right Achilles tendon with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter against the Cardinals. Sherman said last month at the Seattle Sports Star awards that he was ahead of schedule in his recovery and had no doubt he wold be ready for training camp.
The injury and the uncertainty over whether he will be the same player helped lead to Seattle’s decision to ask him to take a pay cut and ultimately release him, and also had led to some intrigue about what kind of offers he would get.
Amid the rumors breaking Saturday morning about his future, Sherman took to Twitter to indicate he could take more visits as he sought a new home — or maybe even circled back to Seattle after assessing the landscape.
“Thank you to everyone for the kind words,” Sherman tweeted. “This is just another chapter in the journey. This will be an ongoing process and I am excited to take on this challenge. To the fans urging me to join your team, I am humbled but I can only look at the teams that have reached out.”
But the “ongoing process” ended quickly and Sherman will now have a chance to play the Seahawks twice a season — and it’s already hard not to get excited about the prospect of him facing off with longtime friend and teammate Doug Baldwin — and will also be assured of making a return trip to CenturyLink Field in 2018.
Sherman was in Las Vegas for NFL Players Association meetings until Friday afternoon but then traveled to the Bay Area for his meeting with the 49ers shortly after the Seahawks made his release official, having dinner with some team officials Friday night and then working out the deal Saturday.
And in some ways Sherman is returning home, having played five years at Stanford, the same alma mater of 49ers GM John Lynch (Lynch confirmed the signing with a tweet featuring a picture of Sherman and his fiancee, Ashley Moss) .
Sherman also will be in a similar defense — San Francisco’s defensive coordinator is Robert Saleh who was a defensive quality control coach with the Seahawks from 2011-13 and has installed a scheme similar to that run by Pete Carroll in Seattle.
“We are very similar, yeah,” Carroll said in September. “You can see that the background and Coach Saleh’s time with us here and then with Gus (Bradley in Jacksonville where Saleh worked from 2014-16), there is a big connection there. They’ve got their own flavor to it. They’ve got nuances and things that they do and of course their people are different, so things don’t come out the same. But there is a lot of similarities.”
Sherman was released on Friday by the Seahawks on a cost-cutting move — Seattle will add $11 million in salary cap space for 2018 with his departure. Overthecap.com has Seattle at just under $31 million for 2018 after the releases of Sherman and cornerback Jeremy Lane on Friday.
Cap space isn’t an issue for the 49ers, who entered Saturday with $70 million, more than all but four other teams, even after recently re-signing quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo to a five-year, $137.5 million deal.
Sherman said in several interviews Friday that the Seahawks had left the door open for Sherman to return at a lesser salary.
But some had also considered it unlikely that would really happen with some thought that Sherman wanted to move on and experience something new after having also signed off on the Seahawks throwing his name out in trade talks a year ago.
Sherman, who is serving as his own agent, said last month at the Seattle Sports Star awards banquet that he hoped to negotiate a long-term deal with Seattle. But he also said he understood that might not happen.
“I plan on playing five or six more years whether it’s here or somewhere else,” he said.
Joining the 49ers also means Sherman will be reunited with his partner for one of the most famous plays in Seattle sports history — Malcolm Smith. Smith, who caught Sherman’s tip of a Colin Kaepernick pass for a game-clinching interception in the 2014 NFC title game, is under contract with the 49ers through 2021 after signing with them last year.
While the Seahawks will now have to go about the task of rebuilding their secondary without one of the founding members of the Legion of Boom — and the first of the trio of players who will forever define it (the others being safeties Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor) — the 49ers get an addition that will only add to the excitement in the Bay Area over a team that won its last five games in 2017 to finish 6-10 behind the emerging Garoppolo.
It also pairs Sherman with a team against whom he had some of his most defining moments as a Seahawks. The Tip is the most obvious, but Sherman also scored a touchdown on a 90-yard blocked field to spur a 42-13 win over the 49ers late in 2012 — a game that may have been the true national coming out party for the Carroll-era Seahawks — and in 2014 had two interceptions in a Thanksgiving night win against the 49ers in Santa Clara.
Because Sherman had been released he was able to immediately sign rather than having to wait until Wednesday, when players whose contracts run out this year become unrestricted free agents. That also means the Seahawks are not eligible for a compensatory pick for Sherman signing elsewhere. All that’s left now are the memories.
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