Richard Sherman thinks he, fellow ex-Seahawk Earl Thomas may be 49ers teammates if...
Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman as 49ers?
Maybe—if Sherman’s public endorsements for his former Seahawks teammate and ex-“Legion of Boom” member to join him in San Francisco prove worthy.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider all but said goodbye to Thomas Wednesday by describing Seattle’s three-time All-Pro safety as going away into free agency in two weeks. Meanwhile on the same morning in the same building at the NFL combine, Sherman was making cases for where Thomas will play next.
Almost exactly one year after the Seahawks waived him injured to avoid paying the $11 million they owed him for 2018, Sherman was inside the Indiana Convention Center on the first day of the NFL combine. He passed by three Bay Area reporters who cover his 49ers.
Sherman stopped to talk—about Thomas.
“If the money’s equal, he’s going to Dallas,” Sherman said Wednesday morning, according to Chris Biderman of the Sacramento Bee.
Thomas and his home-state Cowboys have been linked since Christmas Eve 2017. That was when Thomas went to Dallas’ locker room in Arlington, Texas, immediately following a Seahawks win there and told Cowboys coach Jason Garrett to “come get me when Seattle kicks me to the curb.”
Thomas is now at that curb.
Free agency begins March 13. The Seahawks aren’t going to be making any 11th-hour offers to keep him from joining the market.
Asked Wednesday if he’s been in contact with Thomas recently, Schneider had a short, clear answer.
It said plenty.
“No,” the Seahawks GM said.
“He is a free agent. He is going to test free agency.”
If Dallas doesn’t give Thomas the money he’s been demanding since before he held out from the Seahawks all last offseason and preseason, Sherman has a fitting second place for his former teammate.
The three-time All-Pro cornerback said, per Biderman, that he expects San Francisco “to be a clear option” for Thomas.
Sherman called the 49ers and Thomas an “easy fit.”
Including financially. The 49ers have $69.3 million of space under the expected salary-cap number per team for 2019 of $190 million, according to overthecap.com (the league is expected to announce the cap number this week). San Francisco has the seventh-most estimated cap space in the NFL, directly ahead of its NFC West-rival Seahawks (eighth-most at $51.7 million).
Dallas is 10th in cap space, at $49.4 million.
Schneider’s words Wednesday about Thomas confirmed what’s been obvious since the star’s holdout last summer, his bitter return for the opening game last September, then him skipping practices: he’s leaving.
Thomas let the Seahawks know how he felt about them Sept. 30 when he broke his leg for the second time in three years, during Seattle’s win at Arizona. He unforgettably flashed a middle finger at the Seahawks’ sideline while on the back on a cart that was motoring him out of the stadium.
That indeed will be his last act as a Seahawk.
Last week, Thomas’ agent posted a picture on his Twitter account of Thomas’ rehabilitating with the words “The comeback!!!!!”
Meanwhile, Tedric Thompson is preparing this offseason for his first chance to have Seattle’s starting free-safety job for an entire season. The team’s fourth-round draft choice in 2017 out of Colorado started the final three months of last season after Thomas got hurt. Thompson has yet to prove he is the long-term replacement for Thomas.
So safety is a position of interest if not need for the Seahawks at this combine and April’s draft.
Schneider was asked Wednesday if he was disappointed in how the Seahawks’ relationship ended with Thomas, a franchise foundation since the team drafted him in the first round in 2010.
“No,” Schneider said. “I understood his frustration. It’s business. He’s a free agent and he’s going to test free agency, so we’ll see what happens.
“We have a good relationship with his agents and stuff. He’s going to be one of those dudes that’s up on the Ring of Honor.”
This story was originally published February 27, 2019 at 3:52 PM.
