Can 49ers Richard Sherman keep it up entering 2020?
By Peter Panacy
Why Richard Sherman improves with 49ers in 2020
In 2018, it was somewhat understandable Richard Sherman didn’t quite look like the perennial Pro Bowl self he was during his heyday years with the Seahawks. He was, after all, coming off a torn Achilles the previous season which hampered his efforts and resulted in him missing multiple snaps and two games over the course of that year.
Yet Sherman returned fully healthy en route to his fifth Pro Bowl nod, earning some other notable accolades in the process.
Along with nickel cornerback K’Waun Williams, Pro Football Focus recognized Sherman as part of the best cornerbacking duo in the league last year:
https://twitter.com/PFF/status/1270128983049461760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1270128983049461760%7Ctwgr%5E&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.49ers.com%2Fnews%2Fnick-bosa-dee-ford-richard-sherman-arik-armstead-kwaun-williams-pff-duos
And PFF also ranked Sherman, with his 88.9 overall grade, as the top coverage defender in the league last season.
So much for age catching up with him.
There’s not much more Sherman can do to actually improve here, rather than just maintain consistency and ensure he’s still playing at an all-around high level like the Niners enjoyed a season ago.
Given some of the other question marks San Francisco faces at cornerback opposite him, it’s highly likely Sherman won’t be the recipient of too many targets again in 2020, which will certainly help those coverage-yards-allowed-per-snap metrics.