In the midst of all the pre-draft smokescreenin' and obfuscatin', John Schneider is a beacon of truth. The Seahawks general manager has been surprisingly frank in his public comments about star cornerback Richard Sherman and the possibility of trading him this offseason. 

Last month, it started innocently enough as just another offseason rumor, perhaps more speculative than anything: The Seahawks would be willing to ship Sherman out of town. The perennial Pro Bowl cornerback initially laughed it off but days later he had a different tone. By last week, Schneider conceded that the odds of a trade weren't very good. 

On Monday, Schneider spoke to reporters and reiterated that Sherman will likely stay put while also explaining why he spoke so openly about the process over the last month.

"Right now we have kind of moved past [trading Sherman]" he said. "And if somebody calls and goes crazy with something then we'll discuss it again. But at this point, I don't mean go crazy but give you like compensation where it's something that you really, truly have to think about it and consider it, we would have to consider it. And we would consider it because of, it's like I said, it's been a mutual thing, it's OK. And we feel like it would be, it would clear cap room, we would be able to get younger. But that's the only reason we would do it. I mean the guy is one of the top cornerbacks in the league. You don't just give him away, you know?"

And why was Schneider to open about those discussions in the first place?

"I don't like necessarily lying to people," he said. "I try to teach my boys not to lie about things. So I don't really think we didn't think there was anything to hide. People say, 'Well, why do you have your business out in the open or whatever.' It was basically already out there. People had been talking about it. There had been rumors out there. We have had conversations with teams. But it's just he's at a good place."

The honesty is refreshing.

As for Sherman, he played last season with an undisclosed MCL injury. As TheMMQB.com's Andy Benoit pointed out, that could go a long way toward explaining Sherman's struggles with changing direction. Still, he's an integral part of the Seahawks secondary and it's not like there are better options on the roster that would allow the team to trade him anyway. 

In case you're wondering, two of the six CBSSports.com mock draft experts have Seattle bolstering the secondary with the No. 26 pick.