Richard Sherman's days with the Seattle Seahawks are over. The four-time Pro Bowl cornerback was due to count $13.2 million against the team's salary cap in 2018 and was jettisoned to the free agent market when he reportedly refused a pay cut.
It took him just one day to find a new team on the market, with Sherman signing a three-year, $39 million deal with the San Francisco 49ers on Saturday.
Unlike every other player likely to hit free agency in March, Sherman did do so while acting as his own agent.
Sherman was previously represented by high-profile agent Ben Dogra of Relativity Sports and CAA. But Dogra had his agent license revoked by the NFL Players Association in January 2016 for undisclosed reasons before he was reinstated in February 2017. Sherman didn't retain his services after Dogra was reinstated.
Since then, Sherman has been acting as his own agent. But that hasn't mattered until the 2018 offseason, and his decision to represent himself was put to the test. Sherman passed with flying colors.
Is it rare to be your own agent?
Yes, but it's not unprecedented. Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson is currently serving as his own agent leading up to the 2018 NFL Draft, and New York Giants offensive tackle Ereck Flowers did the same prior to the 2015 NFL Draft.
A comparable situation for Sherman was when former Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung represented himself during free agency in 2016 and 2017. About a decade before that, quarterback Daunte Culpepper served as his own agent for the final years of his NFL career.
What's the point of hiring an agent in the first place?
An NFL agent can play a few roles, helping with public relations and marketing. But the most important job for an agent is negotiating a contract for their client. There's a lot of minutiae that goes into an NFL contract, including a signing bonus, a base salary, roster and workout bonuses, and incentives.
For draft picks — like Flowers in 2015 — much of that is predetermined by the rookie wage scale set in the league's collective bargaining agreement with the NFLPA. But for free agents, it helps to have someone with legal expertise to hammer out a deal.
Okung negotiated a five-year, $53 million deal for himself with the Denver Broncos in 2016. But the contract was essentially a one-year, $5 million deal with no guaranteed money and a four-year, $48 million team option. The Broncos declined that option and Okung was a free agent again in 2017.
A year later, Okung's second shot at negotiating a deal for himself worked out better when he signed a four-year, $53 million deal with the Chargers with $25 million guaranteed.
Why doesn't Sherman want an agent?
Sherman, a Stanford graduate, has always been one of the most outspoken players in the NFL. He hasn't shied away from any subject, and has often compared his skills to other cornerbacks in the league.
If any player understands their own value, can navigate free agency, negotiate a deal, and save some money on agent fees, Sherman is the guy to do it.
"I didn't feel like I needed one," Sherman said. "I can have conversations with general managers and understand my value in comparison to other players in the league."
Sherman continued, saying it would be cheaper to hire a lawyer and pay a one-time fee rather than give a cut of his next contract to an agent.
"A one-time fee to any contract lawyer, there are many lawyers that work with the league and through the NFLPA," he said, adding, "There's nothing that an agent could do for me that I couldn't do for myself or I couldn't hire someone to do at a smaller fee."
Did it affect Richard Sherman's free agency?
It may have affected it before he was released.
The NFL doesn't allow teams to tamper with players on other rosters. For example, Kirk Cousins is still on Washington's roster, so the Vikings, Jets, Broncos or any other interested team isn't allowed to contact Cousins or his agent about joining them until two days before free agency begins on March 14.
But Cousins' agent met with the Broncos in private at the NFL Combine to discuss the contract of another one of his clients, quarterback Trevor Siemian. Discussing Cousins would've been against the rules, but the NFL policing what's said in a private meeting is essentially impossible.
Where Sherman may have been a little behind the eight ball is that teams have to contact him directly. While the Seahawks were pursuing trade options and preparing to release Sherman, the cornerback couldn't do much to gauge his value or find out if a pay cut is a feasible, reasonable option.
But ultimately, that didn't matter much. To see the real impact of his skills as an agent, we had to wait until we saw the contract he signed.
There's risk, though. Sherman bet heavily on himself with base salaries of $16 million in the final two seasons of the deal. Those final two years will become fully guaranteed if Sherman is an All-Pro in 2018. But that means if his play isn't up to par he'll likely be a free agent again in 2019 before he becomes too expensive.
There are also other performance and playtime incentives built into the contract.
It's probably not the best idea for every player to go without an agent, but for Sherman it may have worked out just fine.
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