One of the most interesting storylines from the Seattle Seahawks 36-16 Week 1 romp over the Green Bay Packers was the total lack of action for All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman.
Aaron Rodgers, a perennial MVP candidate and one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, didn’t target Sherman once throughout the entire game, with Green Bay choosing to isolate second-year pro Jarrett Boykin against Sherman on his side of the field. This left Jordy Nelson, the Packers’ best wide-out, with what Green Bay coach Mike McCarthy perceived to be a more favorable matchup against Byron Maxwell.
Nelson managed nine catches for 83 yards but Green Bay’s normally dynamic offense was by and large thwarted by the Legion of Boom, a group that could go down as the most dominant defensive backfield in the history of the game if it keeps up its current level of production.
The scary thing for Seattle opponents going forward has to be how soundly Sherman controlled Green Bay’s offense without even getting a ball thrown his direction. By making a facet of the Packers’ offense completely obsolete, Sherman diminished Rodgers’ options on where to go with the ball and forced the quarterback to work with only one half of the field. Boykin was a ghost, physically present on the field but putting forth precisely zero impact on the game in any capacity.
Say what you will about Sherman’s outspoken persona, but the value of his ability to influence a game to that degree can’t be understated. It gives the Seahawks a huge leg up defensively and the results on the field prove it. Holding Aaron Rodgers to 189 yards passing is no easy feat and the Seahawks did it comfortably. Even the 16 points the Packers did score are slightly misleading. One touchdown that Seattle allowed came after a fumbled Earl Thomas punt return gave Green Bay a short field and the other came when the Seahawks had a healthy lead and pretty much already had the game in hand.
Some have attempted to discredit Sherman’s defensive dominance by pointing out that he only defends one side of the field and doesn’t shadow the other team’s number one receiver like Arizona’s Patrick Peterson or New England’s Darrelle Revis. The argument is that he isn’t consistently playing against as stiff of competition and the system and scheme that he plays in allows him to look better than he actually is. Defending Jarrett Boykin all night isn’t the same thing as defending Jordy Nelson, or any other elite-level NFL receiver.
Of course, this argument is nonsense. The fact that Sherman doesn’t shadow the opposing team’s number one isn’t evidence of inferiority. All it shows is that the Seahawks have developed an effective and refined enough defensive approach (and with enough depth on the roster) to where they don’t have to shift their personnel to accommodate the formations that opposing offenses are running. The fact that they can do that and still dominate isn’t a knock on Sherman’s greatness. It’s a testament to it.
A lot of the credit for this luxury has to go to Maxwell, who is quickly establishing himself as a Pro Bowl-caliber talent in his own right. If he can continue to play shutdown football opposite Sherman, this secondary could be even more historically good than it was a year ago.
So, will Sherman start to get more work and find more places on the Seahawks’ stat sheet as the season progresses? Pete Carroll is already on record as saying that he told Sherman that the lack of action is actually a positive thing for Seattle’s chances of continuing their spectacular play on the defensive side of the ball. But Sherman’s never been one to settle for doing nothing. Consider this quote from Sherman taken from an interview last year regarding the perception of shutdown corners not accumulating targets:
“You’re not the best corner if nobody’s throwing to your side,” Sherman said. “Because the best corners get picks. And they get picks because they bait quarterbacks into throwing to their side. Showing them exactly what they want to see.”
So, there you have it from the man himself. Sherman expects to get picks and he expects to get a lot of them, even if opponents aren’t throwing the ball his way. He’s the self-proclaimed “best corner in the game.”
Now it’s time for him to show just how good he can really be.
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