The 49ers’ highest-profile addition this past offseason is ready to take the field for the first time.
Cornerback Richard Sherman, the former All-Pro with Seattle, has been on a slow track, first coming off rehabilitation following last season’s Achilles’ tendon injury and surgery and then a hamstring strain early in training camp.
But Sherman is eager to finally play in a game, and says his debut in a 49ers uniform will come Saturday at Indianapolis in an exhibition against the Colts.
He says it’s a big step for him to be ready for the season opener in September.
“It’s important just for a defensive continuity standpoint, just knowing where people are going to be on game day,” Sherman told reporters. “You don’t want the first time you deal with communicating with somebody else to be with live bullets out there. You want to be out there and get the communication down if someone isn’t listening or looking and get those tweaks out of the way.”
At 30 and coming off injury, Sherman is seen by some NFL observers as possibly not the same dominant defender he was in Seattle. Sherman, however, has no such doubts. He wanted to play in last week’s exhibition game vs. the Texans, but head coach Kyle Shanahan decided to hold him back another week.
This week, Sherman told Eric Branch of the San Francisco Chronicle that he’s happy with his progress through training camp. Sherman said much was made in early workouts in camp when he was beaten for big plays by 49ers receivers. Sherman says that’s normal, when he’s still not in shape and is experimenting.
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“I’ve been beat a ton in practice,” he told Branch. “I’ve been beat probably thousands of times in practice. But the amount of times I’ve been beat on a Sunday with the lights on is very limited because in practice, you are working. You are working your craft. You’re trying to figure out what you are going to do.”
Saturday’s 49ers game at Indianapolis is set to kick off at 1:30 p.m.
