San Francisco 49ers general manager John Lynch spoke on whether the team would consider bringing back cornerback Richard Sherman this year.
If it weren’t for the July incident that saw Richard Sherman in court, the former 49ers cornerback would likely have ended up on an NFL team by now — but it probably wouldn’t have been in San Francisco.
Speaking on Sherman’s current situation as an available free agent, 49ers GM John Lynch spoke on how Sherman has handled himself in the months since the incident and whether there’s an open door in the Bay Area.
“He handled himself incredibly well,” Lynch said of Sherman’s recent comments on the July incident, per Cam Inman of The Mercury News. “He had a momentary lapse and has to be held accountable for that; he understands that. He also has a decade of doing good for people and overcoming challenges.”
However, Lynch doesn’t currently see a place for Sherman on the 49ers, a team Sherman has played for over the past three years.
“We’re good with where we are at,” he said of the team’s current group of corners. “Who knows, we could need [Sherman] down the road. Most of all, I’m pulling for him and his family. He’s going to overcome this and do great things.”
John Lynch on Richard Sherman’s future in San Francisco
The Sherman conversation was recently reignited by 49ers cornerback Jason Verrett’s knee injury that landed him on IR. Although Lynch makes it clear the 49ers don’t currently have a place for Sherman, the veteran cornerback has other options available to play out his eleventh NFL season.
TouchdownWire’s Doug Farrar sat down with Sherman on Sept. 23 to discuss his current situation and where he is headed in the future. So far, Sherman has spoken to several teams, including the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after the loss of Sean Murphy-Bunting in Week 1. Early in free agency, it was reported that Sherman had spoken with the Saints, the Seahawks and the 49ers, although it’s clear now that the 49ers are officially out of the race.
Sherman described the July incident as being “caught on a bad day” that represented a “crossroads” in his life that was unfortunately seen publicly.
“I’m grateful for what happened,” Sherman told Farrar. “It was a good eye-opening experience; a good chance for me to find help and to get the help I needed and have some conversations I wasn’t able to have before and to get some clarity that I did not have.”