Richard Sherman now officially an ex-Seahawk as reports indicate he has agreed to a deal with the 49ers

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 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.”

Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network reported that Sherman’s contract also includes a $5 million signing bonus.

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And while not all of the details in terms of guarantees had yet to be revealed, the raw average per year of $13 million 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.

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.

Amid the rumors breaking Saturday morning about his future, Sherman took to Twitter to indicate he could take more visits.

“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” appears over and Sherman will now have a chance to play the Seahawks twice a season 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 is thought to have then traveled to the Bay Area for his meeting with the 49ers.

Sherman is obviously familiar with the Bay Area, having played five years at Stanford. 49ers GM John Lynch is also a Stanford grad and talked to Sherman often during his years as an analyst for NFL games for FOX.

Sherman also would 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 have $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 — and sources confirmed to the Times — 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.

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