Seattle, Richard Sherman agree to 4-year extension

RENTON, Wash. – Richard Sherman finally got his moment of being a top pick.

He stood on the stage with spotlights beaming directly on his bow tie. With the coach on one side and general manager on the other, Sherman held up a Seattle Seahawks jersey with his named across the back.

When Sherman entered the NFL as a fifth-rounder, there was no fanfare. That all came on Wednesday.

“I guess this is how it feels to be a first-rounder,” Sherman said after signing a four-year contract extension with Seattle that will make him one of the highest-paid cornerbacks in NFL history.

Much in the tenor of doing things the way he wants, Sherman unveiled the extension on his website before the team could make the announcement. The two-time, first-team All-Pro selection wrote the deal will pay him $57.4 million with $40 million guaranteed and will keep him in a Seahawks uniform through the 2018 season. The deal includes a reported $11 million signing bonus.

“I’m still the guy scrapping for a spot,” Sherman said. “You never lose that mentality.

“You can take a ragged dog that has been living on the streets for 10 years and put him in a brand new house with steak and lobster every night and he’s still the ragged dog that you got off the streets. So I’m still the ragged dog off the street.”

Sherman’s deal wraps up a solid offseason for Seattle prior to the NFL draft. The Seahawks re-signed defensive end Michael Bennett before the start of free agency. They then reached extensions with coach Pete Carroll and All-Pro free safety Earl Thomas.