Richard Sherman appears on schedule in his recovery from a ruptured Achilles. Tracy Ford, the CEO of Ford Sports Performance in Bellevue, Washington, posted the following video of the San Francisco 49ers cornerback training at his facility on Thursday.
.@RSherman_25 the GOAT was back in the lab grinding today! The comeback season is REAL! #CantCheatTheGrind #NFLOffSeasonGrind pic.twitter.com/f03UTZ6icw
— Tracy Ford (@TFordFSP) June 28, 2018
Sherman sustained the injury in a November game against the Arizona Cardinals as a member of the Seattle Seahawks. He signed with the 49ers on March 10, a day after Seattle released him. Sherman was held out of the team's offseason program as he recovered. That ended when he was cleared to take part in individual drills earlier this month during the team's final minicamp.
Sherman expects to be fully cleared to practice by training camp or shortly thereafter. 49ers players report to training camp on July 25. The veteran cornerback believes he is on pace for his target return date.
This offseason is the healthiest Sherman has felt in years. Even before the November injury, his Achilles was not completely healthy. Following the surgery on his leg, Sherman had another surgery to clean out bone spurs in his left foot – an injury which had hampered him for years.
"I feel light years better than I have over the past few years," Sherman said during the team's June minicamp. "This is the first offseason I've actually gotten to heal up and let all the ailments go away and come out completely healthy."
Sherman has registered 367 combined tackles, 32 interceptions, two touchdowns, 99 passes defensed, a sack, and five forced fumbles in seven NFL seasons, according to NFL.com.
Defensive coordinator Robert Saleh has no doubt that the four-time Pro Bowl selection and three-time first-team All-Pro will return to his pre-injury form.
"He's an animal when it comes to taking care of himself and preparing himself to play football games," Saleh said during the 49ers' State of the Franchise event in March. "If people only knew what he actually has played through, they would understand that if there's anyone in the world who can come back from what he's come back from, it would be Sherm, and there's no doubt in our mind that he'll be able to."
H/T to Patrick Tulini for the find.
