The #Saints are among the teams expressing interest in five-time Pro Bowl CB Richard Sherman, per sources. Sherman’s old DBs coach in Seattle, Kris Richard, now has the same job in New Orleans and the team is in the cornerback market after releasing Janoris Jenkins.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) March 16, 2021
There’s a surprise, splashy bit of free agent news. NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reports that the New Orleans Saints are one of the teams looking into cornerback Richard Sherman, one of the top veteran cornerbacks on the open market. Sherman is also one of a handful of players who negotiates his own contracts, meaning the Saints would be addressing him directly during the NFL’s open negotiating window before the start of the new league year on Wednesday.
It’s unclear what sort of contract terms Sherman is seeking, or what the Saints might consider paying him. His last deal was a three-year contract with the San Francisco 49ers paying out $27.15 million, but he’ll turn 33 soon and the Saints could struggle to make the numbers work if he’s still expecting $9 million or more per year.
Still, the match makes plenty of sense. Sherman came up with the Seattle Seahawks as a cornerstone of the “Legion of Boom” defense; one of the architects of those defenses is Kris Richard, now the Saints secondary coach. On top of that, the Saints need a new starter after releasing Janoris Jenkins in a salary cap cut, so Sherman would immediately step into a prominent role with a familiar coach. Maybe there’s enough smoke here to spark a fire.
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