Richard Sherman exposes the truth about Seahawks dubious offseason decisions

Richard Sherman likes to be a bit of a divisive figure, and he does that well. The former Seattle Seahawks cornerback (and, fine...he played for the San Francisco 49ers as well, but we can forget about that) speaks his mind loudly and (mostly) with forethought. He can be funny, he is smart, and he is assertive in expressing his views.

There are times when he seems to stretch the bounds of being correct, but he has almost always had the right opinions about the Seahawks. He might have lost a bit of his in with the organization since former head coach Pete Carroll was relieved of his duties, but Sherman knows how Seattle does business well enough to know when things are going awry.

That happened this offseason when Sherman's former Seattle teammate, Bobby Wagner, did not re-sign with Seattle in free agency. More specifically, the team did not make any real attempt to bring Wagner back. The narrative was that Wagner would be a bad fit in new head coach Mike Macdonald's system. That seems quite foolish, though.

Richard Sherman says the quiet part out loud about the Seahawks offseason linebacker decisions

Wagner is likely talented enough and smart enough to fit and excel in any system. He is also experienced enough to know how to apply his strengths in any scheme. He is certainly doing that in 2024, as he is having a terrific season with his new team, the Washington Commanders.

Sherman's argument is that Seattle made bad choices at inside linebacker this past offseason by letting Wagner walk away while the team signed free agents Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker. Baker has since been traded, and Dodson was released earlier this week. Sherman points out that Seattle spent about $11 million (the number is closer to $8 million) while Wagner was paid only about $7 million so the Seahawks also suffered a net loss financially as well.

Sherman said on his excellent podcast, "(Seattle was) going with PFF"s higher and second-highest graded coverage linebackers...but there's a reason Mike Macdonald looked at the tape and said 'he's the problem, we're cutting him...' Then you trade Jerome Baker to get a linebacker you wanted. So that was $11 million dollars that you spent on linebackers to replace Bobby Wagner that are no longer on the roster nine games into the season...It was really frustrating (this past offseason) and it's even more frustrating now because you're basically conceding that you made mistakes."

The only real issue with that is that Macdonald might have looked at general manager John Schneider's mistake of signing Dodson and wanted to release the linebacker, but the damage was done. Nine games into the season is took long to wait. Schneider has final say over all final roster moves so maybe Schneider did not want to admit his mistake earlier and Macdonald was forced to hold on to Dodson.

But then, why continue to play Dodson? The team could have promoted rookie Tyrice Knight and started him and benched Dodson. Instead, the Seahawks have to trust Knight to be good because the team went with the nuclear option with Dodson and cut him outright. They may have done so so that Dodson could catch on with a new team and start, but that is also bad business. Thinking of the player above the team is not good.

The truth is that very few of John Schneider's offseason decisions have worked out well. He took over full roster decisions from Carroll, and now it looks like the Seahawks should have fired Schneider, tried to talk Carroll into only being the general manager, and hired Macdonald to be the new coach. If Schneider continues to make mistakes next offseason, he shouldn't be the GM in 2026.

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