Could Richard Sherman have been a Minnesota Viking?

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that Minnesota Vikings star cornerback Xavier Rhodes was part of a group of cornerbacks that were working out together on the West Coast. One of his workout partners was former Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman. Sherman was released by the Seahawks back in March, and soon after signed with the San Francisco 49ers.

While the Vikings weren’t reported to have shown any interest in Sherman when he was released, it sounds like Sherman was certainly interested in the Vikings.

According to a column from Robert Klemko, who is apparently taking over Peter King’s old spot at the MMQB, Sherman was only interested in “sharing a sideline” with a couple of quarterbacks following his release by Seattle.

Sherman says he chose the 49ers after being released by the Seahawks on March 9 for a wealth of reasons, including his familiarity with Saleh, the money offered, his respect for head coach Kyle Shanahan’s offensive scheme, and the quarterback. In fact, there were just two QBs Sherman says he was interested in sharing a sideline with in 2018: Kirk Cousins, who jumped from Washington to Minnesota in free agency, and Jimmy Garoppolo.

Sherman then goes on to talk about Garoppolo, and the column never really expands on Sherman’s desire to be on the same team as Cousins. But, since I don’t think that Klemko (or any other reporter) would make something like that up, it would appear that Sherman had at least considered coming to Minnesota as a free agent.

Sherman is coming off of a pretty significant knee injury torn Achilles tendon, but has been one of the best corners in the National Football League for a long time. We may never know if the Vikings showed any sort of reciprocal interest, but it would have been interesting to see Sherman and Rhodes teamed up for more than just a few workouts in Palo Alto.