fbpx
Skip to main content

Richard Sherman Extension Could Handcuff the Seattle Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks have signed cornerback Richard Sherman to a four-year, $57.4 million extension, making him the highest-paid cornerback in the National Football League. 

This comes on the heels of the Seahawks agreeing to a four-year $40 million extension with safety Earl Thomas last month. Sherman and Thomas make up the best defensive back duo in the recent history of the league. With all due respect to quarterback Russell Willson, these two guys played a more important role in the Seahawks Super Bowl winning campaign.

These two deals in a vacuum are great for Seattle. It retains two of the best defensive players in the league on long-term deals and, barring injury, sets itself up for Super Bowl runs over the next couple seasons.

In terms of sustainability, we cannot be too sure that the Sherman deal is going to make long-term sense. Not only is he now the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL, Sherman’s annual salary is higher than all but 11 starting quarterbacks in the NFL, even Tom Brady himself.

That’s an average of nearly $25 million committed to two players in the defensive secondary. Seattle can definitely afford to do that with Wilson set to earn just over $800 thousand in 2014.

But what happens when Wilson gets his extension following the 2014 season? He’s likely going to demand a deal among the five highest-paid quarterbacks in the NFL, which is at about $20 million per season right now. 

Add into account the roughly $13 million that Percy Harvin is set to make in 2015 and that’s nearly $60 million of the cap tied up to just four players. General manager John Schneider may very well be one of the brightest minds in the NFL, but this type of money being tied up to just four players on a 53-man roster could have a major impact on his ability to retain other important youngsters on long-term deals.

The very least, Seattle did what it set out to do at the start of the offseason…lock up two important members of the Super Bowl team from a season ago. It’s now going to be interesting to see what it can do with other players moving forward.

All contract information provided by Spotrac 

Photo: Mark J. Rebiles, USA Today

Mentioned in this article:

More About: