Bruce Arians says Buccaneers have reached out to former Seahawks CB Richard Sherman

If former Seahawk Richard Sherman is to return to the NFL this season, it may not be with Seattle but instead in Tampa Bay.

During his regular weekly radio show on 710 ESPN Seattle Monday morning, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said the team is not currently talking to Sherman, who remains a free agent.

“Nothing right now,” Carroll said when asked if the team was having any discussions with Sherman.

At almost that same moment, Tampa Bay coach Bruce Arians confirmed that Bucs general manager Jason Licht has talked to Sherman.

“Jason’s reached out,” Arians told reporters in Tampa Bay. “We’ve got to see. He’s got other things going on, too.”

That last sentence is an apparent reference to Sherman having been charged with five misdemeanor counts following an incident in July. Those charges include criminal trespass in the second degree with a domestic-violence element, reckless endangerment of roadway crews, driving under the influence, resisting arrest and malicious mischief with a domestic-violence element.

Sherman has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Oct. 1 in King County District Court in Redmond.

Tampa Bay is on the lookout for help at cornerback after Shawn Murphy-Bunting suffered an elbow injury in the opener against Dallas.

A report from the NFL Network Sunday stated that the Bucs had called Sherman and that he “expects to be on the field at some point in 2021″ having gotten down to his playing weight of 195. The NFL Network also said the Seahawks, 49ers and Saints had all talked to Sherman in the offseason about possibly signing.

Carroll in the spring confirmed that Seattle had not ruled out a Sherman signing.

Arians said the Bucs were not zeroing in only on Sherman saying the team is “kicking the tires” on some other guys as well.

“We’ll talk and we’ll see,” Arians said of Sherman. “If it’s the right fit, it’s the right fit and we’ll move on it.”

The Seahawks have gone solely with Tre Flowers and D.J. Reed as their two outside starting cornerbacks in their first two games.

But Carroll offered a less-than-glowing endorsement of their play in Sunday’s loss to the Titans when he talked to the media via Zoom Monday afternoon.

“Well, they managed through the game,” Carroll said. “I didn’t like the big post route (a 51-yard completion to Julio Jones). That was safety help as well. We got beat on a double move one time with Tre, didn’t look good. But they’re hanging in there, they’re battling.”

Carroll also noted that Flowers missed a tackle on the 60-yard TD run by Derrick Henry that helped turn the game.

Seattle traded for former UW standout Sidney Jones before the season and claimed Bless Austin off waivers from the Jets, and Carroll said each is getting closer to be in position to play.

Carroll said the late arrival of each player meant each would need some time to get acclimated to Seattle’s system, which is harder to do once the regular season begins and the focus of practice is on game planning for that week’s opponent.

“Both those guys look good; they look they look like they can help us — we just have to kind of make the call when it’s time to give them a chance to play,” Carroll said. “It’s not a position that we’ve rotated guys regularly over the years so we have to wait and see how that fits.”

Carroll also said that rookie Tre Brown, a fourth-round pick out of Oklahoma, will come off IR next week “to come back into the competition of it.”

Seattle also has John Reid on its roster at cornerback after initially acquiring him in a trade with Houston.

So for now, that appears to mean Sherman will have to move on if he is to continue his playing career.

Sherman starred for the Seahawks from 2011-17 before spending the last three seasons with the 49ers. He became a free agent following the 2020 season.