Richard Sherman signing will end the NFC South race

Richard Sherman has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, bad news for the Carolina Panthers, Atlanta Falcons, and New Orleans Saints. It is a move speaking to the state of their division. A division Tampa now owns and signing Sherman solidifies it.

The Tampa secondary was the one thing that could be exposed that gave teams like the Panthers or Falcons a chance at beating their division rival. This issue is now going to be resolved with Tampa getting healthier and adding Sherman.

While some may argue Sherman isn’t the player he used to be this argument somehow becomes defunct when players join Tampa.

Tampa Bay is quietly resurrecting careers including a former Legion of Boom member Richard Sherman

Ndamukong Suh and Jason Pierre-Paul are part of what is considered to be an elite defensive pass rush. Players who had been passed over and forgotten after they had great careers, both believed to be at the end of the road. Instead, they found new life in Tampa and led what was one of the most dominating Super Bowl performances of all time.

Gronk was retired and absolutely cooked, he had taken too much punishment and had lost a step. In his final year with the Patriots, he wasn’t the same player. A year removed from the game Gronk returned and looked to be reborn in the Tampa offense bringing back memories of early Tom Brady and Gronk days.

Antonio Brown was a mess, no team wanted to touch the former star receiver. A star who at one point was considered the best receiver in football. Failed tenures with the Patriots and Raiders left Brown jobless and seemingly without any options in the league.

Tom Brady set his foot down in Tampa that he wanted Brown brought in. Brown’s career was reborn and early on this season, he has the quickness and ability we haven’t seen since he was with the Steelers.

There is also the fact no one will let us forget that Tom Brady is in his forties and somehow even better than he was two decades ago. There is simply something special about this Tampa team that takes players thought to be done and gives them a chance to recapture their primes.

Richard Sherman isn’t going to be an exception to this trend. Unfortunately for the rest of the NFC South Sherman is going to step in and help to stabilize the secondary for Tampa.

While he won’t be the same corner he was in Seattle he will be as productive as he was pre-injury with San Francisco.  Production that will be good enough to fix the Tampa secondary and end any hope the rest of the NFC South is holding on to.

This division is Tom Brady’s for the time being an irritating and unfortunate fact that simply isn’t going to change.