As the 49ers continue to receive praise for the amount of talent collected on the offensive side of the ball, a former Niner wants to keep the attention on the defensive side.
To be honest, I’ve had trouble remembering that Richard Sherman at one point played with the 49ers. That’s not to say I didn’t think he played well with them, far from it. Rather, his Seahawks tenure is forever engraved in the back of my mind.
With that in mind, Sherman looks like he’s looking back on those times fondly.
On Thursday, Sherman, one of the game’s top corners in recent memory, said to keep the 49ers’ secondary in mind as one of the league’s absolute best.
The Tweet
https://twitter.com/RSherman_25/status/1552748426961465344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1552748426961465344%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.redditmedia.com%2Fmediaembed%2Fwajykq%3Fresponsive%3Dtrueis_nightmode%3Dfalse
That’s some lofty praise for a corner with Sherman’s resume. Emmanuel Moseley helped himself with a breakout season in 2020, and newcomer Charvarius Ward is set to have a big year in his first season in San Francisco.
Jimmie Ward hasn’t received much in accolades in his time in the NFL, but the safety has been with the 49ers since 2014, and he’s been a solid foundation for that unit for years.
Then there’s the young second-year safety Talanoa Hufanga, famous for the blocked punt against the Packers in January.
Sherman himself was brought into San Francisco to fix a team that only had two inteceptions in all of 2018, the fewest from any defense in the 16 and 17 game eras of football. With his help in 2019, the 49ers intercepted 12 passes, a dramatic improvement.
That San Francisco team also went from a league worst -25 turnover margin in 2018 to a +4 margin in 2019, the 10th highest that year.
All this is to say Sherman’s impact in the Bay Area was brief but cannot be understated, turning that 2019 into a Pro Bowl and Second Team All-Pro year. He knows a thing or two about success in secondary, so his praise of the 49ers is noteworthy.