Sports Illustrated is out with their 2018 preview issue, and the San Francisco 49ers are getting some love with one of the regional covers. SI regularly creates multiple covers for various regions in their preview articles. This year, Richard Sherman gets one of the four covers. I’m a little surprised we are not seeing Jimmy Garoppolo, but if it’s not going to be Jimmy G, Sherman makes plenty of sense,
.@RSherman_25 is bringing his swagger to San Francisco (NFL preview cover 4/4) https://t.co/8ZLoTszYQ8 pic.twitter.com/DVZ3qckGnv
— The MMQB (@theMMQB) August 21, 2018
The tweet links to Andy Benoit’s predictions for the league, offering picks for every team’s record, plus playoff winners. He has the 49ers finishing the season 9-7, finishing one game back ahead of the Los Angeles Rams and two ahead of the Seattle Seahawks. He has the Minnesota Vikings and New Orleans Saints finishing 11-5 and claiming the two wild card berths.
He offers a few notes on his predictions, and for the 49ers he mentions their secondary. There are plenty of questions about it, but I still think the pass rush is where the biggest problem could lie. Maybe they figure things out, but there are enough questions that it could result in the 49ers coming up just short.