Richard Sherman has typically played one side of the field rather than following an opponent’s best receiver around, and it has worked extremely well for the Seattle Seahawks for several years. That game plan may be altered, however, when the Atlanta Falcons come to town.
Sheil Kapadia of ESPN.com speculates that the Seahawks will task Sherman with shadowing Julio Jones on Sunday. Sherman, who almost exclusively lined up at left cornerback early in his career, shadowed Brandon Marshall in Week 4 and both Dez Bryant and Antonio Brown last season.
“It gets easier the more you do it, [like] anything,” he said. “If you never dribble with your left hand, and they only ask you to dribble with your right, you’re not going to be great dribbling with your left hand. But if they ask you to dribble with both, then you’ll be adept at it. But it’s been something that’s been fun for me whenever they ask me to do it, whenever the challenge presents itself.”
Marshall caught four passes for 89 yards and a touchdown against Sherman, but he was targeted 12 times. Sherman also recorded two interceptions in the game. The Seahawks are not saying for sure if he will follow Jones around on Sunday, but it seems like a safe bet.
“I think just over the course of time, getting flipped over on the other side early on when he was just playing on the left side, he just had more opportunity to become comfortable,” head coach Pete Carroll said. “It’s different, it’s not the exact same. It feels different when the ball is in the air, particularly on the deep ball, and guys have to get accustomed to that. He is there, he can do all that now. But it’s also not just him. It has to do with the other guys. If the other player is flipping, that’s part of the variable also. We’re at a point where we can do whatever we need to do now.”
Like Josh Norman, Sherman has had to listen to a lot of smack talk when he sticks to one side of the field. If Sherman does shadow Jones, the reason won’t be the same as the one that supposedly inspired Norman to follow Odell Beckham Jr. around earlier this season.
We all know what Jones is capable of. While we’d be willing to guarantee the star receiver won’t match his stat line of 12 catches for 300 yards from Week 4, he should be a handful for Sherman no matter where the All-Pro cornerback lines up.
