With the NFL draft come and gone, we can put a wrap on the Richard Sherman trade discussion.
Speaking on KIRO-AM in Seattle on Thursday, Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said the likelihood of the team trading their cornerstone is all but zilch.
"Yes. In one respect, it would be because it went after draft time," Carroll said, via ESPN's Sheil Kapadia. "But people can always call you, and there were some people, there were some conversations. I don't think they're going to change. I don't think anybody's going to offer us anything that would make it worthwhile, because there's no draft involved and all that kind of stuff. But that's always out there. There's always opportunities to trade.
"But the likelihood is like zero percent, it seems like. Teams don't want to give up stuff. They don't want to trade at times like this, and it's really hard to navigate through a trade with experienced players during draft time. It just doesn't happen very often."
A Sherman trade lost steam weeks ago, as the Seahawks would have wanted a massive haul for the 29-year-old cornerback.
During the process, Seattle's brass was open about the possibility of trading a centerpiece of its defense. General manager John Schneider publicly admitted that jettisoning Sherman could alleviate future salary-cap concerns and potentially bring back a trove of draft picks.
Despite the trade talks, Carroll said Thursday that his relationship with Sherman is "as good as it's ever been."
"Everybody on our team is available to somebody that wants to come get them if they want to trade for them," Carroll said. "We don't want to trade guys. We want to keep our guys. But we have to in an effort to always work to be better and help our team. We've got to listen and all that. So we went through that process. There was very open conversation about that. There was no animosity at all."
With the trade talks kaput for this season, we can now wait until the calendar flips to 2018 to revisit the possibility of Seattle parting with the three-time All-Pro.
