Buccaneers reached out to cornerback Richard Sherman

With a dark cloud hanging above the Buccaneers’ cornerback room, having lost Sean Murphy-Bunting to an elbow injury for an unknown length of time and now having Carlton Davis banged up, the Bucs appear to be looking in different directions to help shore up their starting lineup in the secondary. That means reaching out to a former Super Bowl champion, a five time Pro Bowler, and a three time All-Pro - Richard Sherman.

According to NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, the Bucs have indeed made contact with the free agent cornerback to discuss bringing him in. According to Pelissero, the 49ers and Seahawks are also interested in reunions with Sherman, while the Saints had been interested early in the free agent process but couldn’t come close to one another in terms of compensation.

If Sherman, who is his own agent, is looking to make money then the Bucs won’t be for him. However, if he’s looking to get things back on track while going after another championship he could very well decide that Tampa is the right fit.

Sherman is still dealing with the fallout of a domestic violence issue from July. Sherman has been involved in counseling, seeing a therapist to help him work through his issues. He also pled not guilty to his five misdemeanor charges.

Sherman is back to his playing weight and all signs point to him being able to get on to the field as soon as he signs with a team. However, with him being unable to reach agreements with teams early in free agency due to his high asking price, his options will be extremely limited if he won’t accept less money than he originally wanted to.

With the cap situation being what it is and Sherman’s off-field issues being unresolved, it would be smarter for him to take less money now and prove he can still play before going after bigger money next offseason when the cap jumps up. You would also think that by then all his legal issues will be decided and that distraction would be in the rearview mirror.

Time will tell what is more important to Sherman as far as money or competing for a championship, but the Bucs have officially thrown their hat into the ring to help out the back end of this defense.

UPDATE;

According to ESPN's Ed Werder, the Bucs want to see how their secondary performs today against the Falcons. Based on that, talks with Sherman could intensify in the coming week;