An exciting side note in the Bennett resigning.

[monkey]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/112851/price-was-right-for-bennett-to-stay-in-seattle
This blurb from ESPN gives more details than anything I've read yet about the resigning, but the most important part was sort of a throw away line.

"Bennett also said Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman begged him to stay and influenced his decision."
Did you catch that?
Richard Sherman, the guy we are all hoping doesn't go chasing after big money, but MANY fans are worried will, was the primary advocate from the team begging for him to come back!
This is big on multiple levels.
Obviously it shows just how dedicated Sherman is to winning more Super Bowls. Not that we needed more confirmation of just how much this guy truly "gets it", but here it is again...this guy TRULY "gets it"!
More to the point though, this shows a clear desire on Sherman's part to continue to play for the Seahawks! He wouldn't be concerned with Bennett or with "begging" Bennett to come back if he were even contemplating on any level, the idea of leaving for a bigger paycheck or another team.
I think Sherman is really and truly planning on being a long time Seattle Seahawk.
You may think "Duh, of course he is, he's already hinted strongly at that!" but what players, owners, GM's, agents, and coaches SAY only occasionally lines up with what they actually DO. We all know Earl will be back, the front office would sooner amputate their arms than even let him sniff free agency, but many of us fans had wondered about Richard Sherman...I don't, not anymore. This to me is as solid an indicator of what Richard Sherman is after as anything I have ever seen or read about him. He wants to keep this thing rolling. Huzza!!
Sherman wouldn't be begging Bennett to come back here, unless he has plans to stay here himself. Plain and simple, and any way you slice it, that is VERY good news!!!

[Hawk Sista]

Reason for hope, for sure! Thanks for pointing it out.

[RiverDog]

http://espn.go.com/blog/nfcwest/post/_/id/112851/price-was-right-for-bennett-to-stay-in-seattle
This blurb from ESPN gives more details than anything I've read yet about the resigning, but the most important part was sort of a throw away line.

"Bennett also said Seattle cornerback Richard Sherman begged him to stay and influenced his decision."
Did you catch that?
Richard Sherman, the guy we are all hoping doesn't go chasing after big money, but MANY fans are worried will, was the primary advocate from the team begging for him to come back!
This is big on multiple levels.
Obviously it shows just how dedicated Sherman is to winning more Super Bowls. Not that we needed more confirmation of just how much this guy truly "gets it", but here it is again...this guy TRULY "gets it"!
More to the point though, this shows a clear desire on Sherman's part to continue to play for the Seahawks! He wouldn't be concerned with Bennett or with "begging" Bennett to come back if he were even contemplating on any level, the idea of leaving for a bigger paycheck or another team.
I think Sherman is really and truly planning on being a long time Seattle Seahawk.
You may think "Duh, of course he is, he's already hinted strongly at that!" but what players, owners, GM's, agents, and coaches SAY only occasionally lines up with what they actually DO. We all know Earl will be back, the front office would sooner amputate their arms than even let him sniff free agency, but many of us fans had wondered about Richard Sherman...I don't, not anymore. This to me is as solid an indicator of what Richard Sherman is after as anything I have ever seen or read about him. He wants to keep this thing rolling. Huzza!!
Sherman wouldn't be begging Bennett to come back here, unless he has plans to stay here himself. Plain and simple, and any way you slice it, that is VERY good news!!!

Sherman knows he's not going anywhere but here in 2014, so it would make sense that he wanted Bennett back, but I wouldn't attach too much long term optimism that he's going to be marketing himself at Costco because of his excitement of playing with Bennett at least one more season. It's a nice thought, though.

[monkey]

I think it's a lot more than just a nice thought. I might be reading too much into it, but the way that Sherm has invested himself into the city, and into the brand, and into the idea of the LOB, (which he cannot use anywhere else), he stands to lose money going anywhere else even with a somewhat bigger contract.
Sherm is smart enough to realize that staying here long term, and keeping the LOB together as long as possible, is a cash cow from a marketing standpoint.
Selling the LOB concept, (again, something he cannot do ANYWHERE ELSE) is a big time money maker.
Selling the LOB can easily offset any contract shortcomings and he knows it.
He also is smart enough to know that, while he would be a good corner anywhere, that he CLEARLY benefits from playing here in this scheme. Taking nothing away from him as a player, I think a case could be made that he benefits as much or more from the scheme he plays here, as any player on any team in the league.
He isn't asked to shadow or lock down the opposing teams best receiver. I am pretty sure he could, and would be good at it, but this scheme fits his skill set SO much better.
In this scheme he is allowed to maximize his strengths in a way that I don't think he would be able to do on any other team. (Maybe now the Jags, but you get the point).
What he is asked to do in this scheme, is what he is already good at.

I do think he plans on staying long term, and I do think that his begging Bennett to stay is evidence of that.

[Hawk Sista]

I often had the dream this season, as I watched our championship season unfold.. That Pete and his band of merry young warriors could just have the ish to be trend setters by way of contract negotiations. I know it's not reality based, but I could really see the potential for the core fellas to structure their pay-days in team centric fashion. Watching the niners implode (ok, I exaggerated for fun) and team after team decimate talent for 100,000,000 pay days might be helpful. Our boys like to win, and they know they cannot do it alone.

Pipe dream.... Probably. Nice thought - hell yes. Possible - yeah, I kinda think so.

[RiverDog]

I think it's a lot more than just a nice thought. I might be reading too much into it, but the way that Sherm has invested himself into the city, and into the brand, and into the idea of the LOB, (which he cannot use anywhere else), he stands to lose money going anywhere else even with a somewhat bigger contract.
Sherm is smart enough to realize that staying here long term, and keeping the LOB together as long as possible, is a cash cow from a marketing standpoint.
Selling the LOB concept, (again, something he cannot do ANYWHERE ELSE) is a big time money maker.
Selling the LOB can easily offset any contract shortcomings and he knows it.
He also is smart enough to know that, while he would be a good corner anywhere, that he CLEARLY benefits from playing here in this scheme. Taking nothing away from him as a player, I think a case could be made that he benefits as much or more from the scheme he plays here, as any player on any team in the league.
He isn't asked to shadow or lock down the opposing teams best receiver. I am pretty sure he could, and would be good at it, but this scheme fits his skill set SO much better.
In this scheme he is allowed to maximize his strengths in a way that I don't think he would be able to do on any other team. (Maybe now the Jags, but you get the point).
What he is asked to do in this scheme, is what he is already good at.

I do think he plans on staying long term, and I do think that his begging Bennett to stay is evidence of that.

We'll see this time next year just how willing he is to give us a home town discount. A lot can change between now and then.

The ever increasing salary cap is going to be driving player expectations upward league wide, including here. Remember the post Bird Droppings made that had the cap going up to as much as $145-$160M next season? In addition, the 89% salary floor, which will start making some teams nervous next season as it's based on a 4 year total and will be causing teams that otherwise would be pinching pennies (ie Mike Brown) to enter into the bidding for the top players.

So we'll see how things play out next season. It would sure be nice to lock up either Sherman or Thomas this season as it's only going to get more expensive and more problematic to resign top players in the coming years.

[monkey]

You may be right Riv...guess time will tell.
I'd be willing to bet one thing though, before the end of this summer, Earl Thomas will be given a big contract extension, one that will ensure he stays here through the largest portion of his career.
I wouldn't be at all surprised if we see both Earl and Sherm extended before the season starts as a matter of fact, but I'd be willing to bet a ton that for sure Thomas will be.

[kalibane]

Meh I think Monkey may be a little overly optimistic. I'm still on the fence on whether Sherm will come back or not but I think the Salary Cap increases help more than they hurt (especially for foward thinking GMs like Schneider), and you can force people to spend money but you can't change the the mindset of a man through policy making.

Guys like Mike Brown are just cheap. They may be forced to spend up to the floor but No FAs want to go to the Bengals. You think back to when FAs used to use the Seahawks as leverage to get better deals from elsewhere, well the Bengals are worse. They have to aggressively overpay to get big name free agents and that just isn't in Mike Brown's nature and never will be. I expect the same to be true of other franchises that aren't willing to spend and have problems attracting interest from big time players.

I think the salary floor will ultimately hurt Hawks strategy for recruiting outside free agents like Bennett and Avril. I predict what will happen is that for teams like the Bengals, once the highly prized free agents have picked their destinations they will then turn towards overpaying mid tier free agents and extending their own guys just to hit the salary floor.

The teams that we have to worry about taking Sherman will be the typical cast of characters who try to make a huge splash on the first day. Redskins, Cowboys, Dolphins, Raiders.

[Eaglehawk]

You never know who will get hurt, but a guy like Thomas is someone you need to lock up now, IMO.

If everything else plays out. I hope its possible. One thing about PC and JS is that they communicate very well with the players. The players respect that.

[THX-1138]

I think it's a lot more than just a nice thought. I might be reading too much into it, but the way that Sherm has invested himself into the city, and into the brand, and into the idea of the LOB, (which he cannot use anywhere else), he stands to lose money going anywhere else even with a somewhat bigger contract.
Sherm is smart enough to realize that staying here long term, and keeping the LOB together as long as possible, is a cash cow from a marketing standpoint.
Selling the LOB concept, (again, something he cannot do ANYWHERE ELSE) is a big time money maker.
Selling the LOB can easily offset any contract shortcomings and he knows it.
He also is smart enough to know that, while he would be a good corner anywhere, that he CLEARLY benefits from playing here in this scheme. Taking nothing away from him as a player, I think a case could be made that he benefits as much or more from the scheme he plays here, as any player on any team in the league.
He isn't asked to shadow or lock down the opposing teams best receiver. I am pretty sure he could, and would be good at it, but this scheme fits his skill set SO much better.
In this scheme he is allowed to maximize his strengths in a way that I don't think he would be able to do on any other team. (Maybe now the Jags, but you get the point).
What he is asked to do in this scheme, is what he is already good at.

I do think he plans on staying long term, and I do think that his begging Bennett to stay is evidence of that.

I have got to agree with monkey here. If any of you follow Sherman on his various social media platforms you know that he is a relentless marketer with a keen eye on making himself money based on his associations with the LOB. I speculate that this is his way of making additional income that is not available in his rookie contract (that's pretty obvious) and that his particular "branding" of the LOB and "U Mad Bro" (among others) products is with the notion that he could offset money he might not get from a "home team" discount. Sherman is not a dummy, that much we can all agree on. Making a lot of money (which he most assuredly will with Seattle) and building a potential dynastic team (which is doubtful anywhere else he goes) would be what I would presume to be his focus. Supplementing his income with proper branding i.e. his association as a member of the LOB and the Championship Seahawks appear to be a financial no-brainer.