I still remember when Richard Sherman came into the league. He was drafted in the fifth-round with the 154th pick by the Seattle Seahawks in 2011. A year later in 2012, the Seahawks became one of the best defenses in the league and he had a big part to do with it. In 2013, behind another stellar defense, the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in franchise history with a blowout win over the Denver Broncos who were a record setting offense that season. Richard was a key piece to a Seattle defense known as the “Legion of Boom”. After seven seasons in Seattle, the team decided to release him which surprised everyone, myself included. He would eventually sign with the San Francisco 49ers as a free agent. The 49ers ended up releasing him. The talks had been brewing up about him joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Today, the veteran defensive back announced he is officially signing with the defending Super Bowl champs.
At one time, he was widely regarded as the best cornerback in this league. He’s set the trend for taller guys to play in the secondary. Speaking of height, Richard is 6’3! He’s a long and rangy guy that prides himself on playing press coverage and he prides himself on putting his hands on the receiver and being physical. It’s an uncharacteristic trait of a corner because some corners don’t want to be physical at the line. One thing I’ve noticed about him is how closely he plays to the receiver (literally nose to nose) and still allows himself to stay on top of who’s lined up against. Another strong point of his game is his intellect. Richard is one of the smartest cornerbacks I’ve seen play this game. When he was at Stanford, he was actually a wide receiver so, he has the ability to know what routes are being ran and how to jump them. With being so instinctual and at this point in his career, he’s probably seen every route imaginable.
He was a key contributor to a 49ers team that won the NFC in 2019 and they were also the top ranked pass defense that season. One thing I noticed from him that year was how he was coaching up the younger players on that San Francisco secondary. What he did then is exactly what he’s going to do for the Buccaneers who were in dire need of secondary help. Tampa has already been without their best cover cornerback in Sean Murphy-Bunting who injured his elbow in week one. The Bucs secondary has struggled early on this year and hopefully adding Sherm will fix that.
