One of the most iconic defenders from the Legion of Boom may be on his way out of Seattle today. Rumors about Richard Sherman's status in Seattle have swirled around all offseason and even the New England Patriots seemed to have an interest in trading for him. Today it seems the rumors of his exit from Seattle are more than just chatter, as NFL Networks Ian Rapoport reported that Richard Sherman told his teammates goodbye over the past day. This comes on top of a cryptic tweets from former Legion of Boom teammate Bobby Wagner stating that "All good things must come to an end" and current teammate Jeremy Lane saying "That text message got my heart hurting ...
Damn that was my Dawg #WhatsNext". While nothing is set in stone, Sherman is going to meet with head coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider later to discuss his future. Sherman, who is 29, has played with the Seahawks his entire career and his departure would mark and end to an era for the Seahawks.
More roster turnover
This comes after major news about more Seahawks roster turnovers as Seattle traded another key member from the Super Bowl-winning roster, Michael Bennet, to the Eagles for a 5th round pick and receiver Marcus Johnson, as well as announcing that they do not expect Kam Chancellor or Cliff Avril to be on the field next year. This, along with the potential exit of Sherman, would mean most of the players from the Seahawks' championship defense would be missing from the field next year.
Accountability from top to bottom
The new faces on the field for the Seahawks are not limited to just players, as there was a huge amount of turnover in the coaching staff as well. Carroll talked about accountability from the top down and said that they need to improve in the technical and administrative side of their game as well.
Carroll stated that they would improve "everything from how we rehab to how we play call."
They fired Kris Richard who served as the team's defensive coordinator for the past 3 seasons. They also fired the team's offensive coordinator Darell Bevel, and Tom Cable, who served as the Seahawks' offensive line coach. To replace these coaches they hired Ken Norton Jr.
(defensive coordinator), Brian Schottenheimer (offensive coordinator), and Mike Solari (offensive line coach).
With this much turnover the Seahawks could be nearly unrecognizable next year when compared to the team that most fans know. Earlier in the offseason GM John Schneider stated that "there's a lot of huge decisions to be made" and that they would be faced with "big challenges" in deciding who to keep. We are starting to see what he meant as the Seahawks are being forced to get rid of multiple key members of the team.