The San Francisco 49ers will close out the 2018 regular season with Richard Sherman and Tarvarius Moore starting at cornerback against the Los Angeles Rams. Moore moved into the starting lineup after Ahkello Witherspoon sprained his knee in Week 15 against the Seattle Seahawks.
Witherspoon’s sprain did not require surgery, and he is already off crutches and not limping while wearing a knee brace. He posted the video below to his Instagram story. If you can’t see it, you can also view it on Reddit.
The 49ers placed Witherspoon on injured reserve last week. Once the season ends, the IR list and other injury lists empty and everybody is on the 90-man offseason roster. Witherspoon can work with trainers right now, but cannot take part in practice these final couple days. However, given that he is not limping anymore, he should be 100 percent by the time the offseason workout program gets here in April.
Then, things get interesting. He will be competing with Richard Sherman and Tarvarius Moore for an opportunity at cornerback. More than likely Sherman will start on one side and then Moore and Witherspoon will compete for the other starting spot. The 49ers could invest further in the position, but we’ll have to wait for free agency in March and then potentially the draft in late April. Greedy Williams has been suggested as a first round option depending on where the 49ers sit, but maybe they’re comfortable adding an edge rusher and rolling the dice with their current group of cornerbacks. I suspect they add at least one player to compete at the position, but how much they invest remains to be seen.