The San Francisco 49ers secondary has re-tooled in the 2018 offseason with the arrow pointing up in all aspects. This impressive potential is riding in part on the recovery of cornerback Richard Sherman, who tore his Achilles during the 2017 season.
If we’re going by this week’s MMQB article on Sherman’s cornerback summit, you might immediately be alarmed. We’ve already talked about how fellow 49ers cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon attended this summit, but it also had some details on Sherman’s rehab and recovery.
Sherman has been busy rehabbing the torn Achilles tendon that sidelined him in early November and required surgery. He’s running at full speed, but walking with a slight limp after a full day’s workout at Stanford.
Take your hands off the panic button. Yes, it’s not an ideal outcome, but until a doctor states otherwise, he’s probably fine. If he wasn’t working out at all it may be a concern, but putting in a workout and having a slight limp after those surgeries? Many times that’s just the normal course of getting the injured body part back into shape.
That said, this does indicate things might be a bit slower than we’d desire and he’s not quite back to football shape just yet. But again, he was out there, and we’re not doctors.
Given the rehab process, this is not a shocking result following significant physical activity. Hopefully this is the case and it’s just Sherman working through it, rather than something that might be a bigger problem.
Will he be ready for training camp by July 26th? Maybe, maybe not. It would not be all that surprising to see Sherman open training camp on the Physically Unable To Perform List just so the 49ers can make sure he gets 100 percent up to speed. The point is just because he has a slight limp, especially after the injury he’s had doesn’t mean his rehab has fallen completely off schedule and he’s not going to get back to form.
Wait until the end of training camp, then we can panic.