Linebacker Bobby Wagner is back in Seattle. According to former Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman, it almost didn’t happen.
Appearing on KJR radio in Seattle, Sherman said that he talked to Wagner “all the time,” and that Sherman knew a return to Seattle by Wagner “was in the works.”
“I was hoping that John [Schneider] didn’t mess it up, and he didn’t,” Sherman said, via Michael-Shawn Dugar of TheAthletic.com. “He tried. He tried on multiple occasions.”
Sherman was later asked how Schneider almost messed it up.
“Just lowballing a guy,” Sherman said. “There’s a difference between lowballing and being disrespectful and they got borderline disrespectful. Thankfully, Bobby really wanted to be with the Seahawks, and he really wanted to come back home. Because other people offered him more money.”
That’s part of the negotiating tactics in which teams will engage, if they think a guy really wants to play in a certain place. Wagner has wanted to stay on the West Coast, both last year when looking for a team (he picked the Rams) and this year.
The Seahawks apparently knew it, and negotiated accordingly. And ultimately got it done, even if Sherman thinks Schneider “tried” to “mess it up.”