A year ago, Solomon Thomas, DeForest Buckner, Arik Armstead, and others were doing extensive offseason work with notable pass rushers. Thomas spent time with DeMarcus Ware, Von Miller, and others to get ready for his rookie season. Armstead joined Thomas at Miller’s pass rush summit, and later Armstead, Buckner, and others were in Hawaii working out with Michael Bennett.
Jim Harbaugh loved the adage, “iron sharpens iron,” and in recent years we’ve seen that in action, with NFL players crossing team rivalries to work out with the best of the best. This offseason, it appears to be the cornerbacks turn!
San Francisco 49ers cornerback Richard Sherman posted some video Tuesday afternoon from a workout organized with trainer Rischad Whitfield. The workout included 49ers second-year cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, and NFL veterans Aqib Talib, Darius Slay, and Xavier Rhodes. Those three veterans were all voted onto the Pro Bowl last year, Slay and Rhodes were All Pro cornerbacks in 2017, and Talib was an All Pro cornerback in 2016. And of course, we know Richard Sherman’s credentials.
You can view the video below, but it was also fun checking out the comments. Tom Brady jumped in with this comment:
tombrady Ah s***, I may have to get the QB family together after watching this! Can’t let you get the edge on us @aqibtalib21 @ahkello @rsherman25 @bigplayslay23 @_xavier29 What do you think @aaronrodgers12 @drewbrees @dangerusswilson ???
Sherman replied with this:
rsherman25 @tombrady Hahahaha we were thinking ... maybe next summer we get @ab @juliojones_11 @ajgreen_18 and the boys and all have a fun workout ♂️
Tom Brady responded to sign him up, and that was that. An amusing exchange now that Brady seems to get into Instagram comments with some regularity.
But it’s cool to see Witherspoon working out with four of the best cornerbacks in the NFL. It remains to be seen how Sherman will look this year following his torn Achilles, but the absolute worst case scenario on the field will not change the knowledge he will be able to pass on to Witherspoon in practice and during games. It’s hard not to get excited about the trajectory of Witherspoon’s career with a mentor like Richard Sherman.