Richard Sherman joining the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Richard Sherman has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it was confirmed on Wednesday. And the legend that is Tom Brady had a part to play.

Sherman becomes a Buccaneer

"I went with the best offer I had," Sherman announced on his self named podcast. "The best opportunity to go out there and put some great tape on, to lead another group," he continued.

"I feel comfortable and confident in my abilities to go out there and execute and help that team win."

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been dealing with significant injury issues at cornerback and see Sherman as a solution to those problems. Reports earlier in the week had suggested that the Bucs were the leading candidate to land the player who has been with the 49ers in the last few seasons, and during Sunday's defeat to the Los Angeles Rams the loss of Jamel Dean to a knee injury confounded their needs. This came after injury to Sean Murphy-Bunting ruled him out too.

The Brady call

With Tampa already with one of the youngest defensive backfields in the league, Sherman, now 33, can bring some much-needed experience. And talking of experience, it was the team's legendary quarterback, Tom Brady, who made an influential call.

"He's the all-time great quarterback reaching out," Sherman admitted, "and anytime he makes that call, it's a very difficult opportunity to pass up."

If he is to truly be an asset to the Bucs, Sherman is going to have to stay fit himself and kickstart his performances after limited action in 2020.

Injuries restricted Sherman to five games for the San Francisco 49ers last year and, in his 150 pass coverage snaps as an outside corner, he allowed a burn – which is when a receiver wins his matchup with a defender on a play where is targeted – 72.2 per cent of the time.

That was the fourth-worst rate among outside corners with a minimum of 200 total snaps. Sherman allowed an average of 12.11 burn yards across his 18 targets, above the average of 10.51 and gave up a big play on 34.1 per cent of his targets (the average for outside corners was 27.2).

However, his burn yards per snap average of 1.45 yards was tied for 20th with Dean, speaking to the respect opposing quarterbacks still gave to Sherman through their unwillingness to test him in coverage. Indeed, Dean was targeted on 16.1 per cent of his coverage snaps compared to 12 per cent for Sherman.

And Sherman would likely point to his 2019 season as evidence he can still perform at the highest level.

A Pro Bowler and second-team All-Pro two seasons ago as he helped the 49ers to Super Bowl LIV, Sherman still gave up a burn on 50.9 per cent of targets, just above the average of 50.4 for outside corners with at least 200 snaps.

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Yet his burn yards per snap rate of 1.17 was sixth-best for outside corners and his burn yards per target average of 7.54 over 55 targets was also sixth.

Seventh among outside corners with a big play percentage allowed of 16.9, Sherman has recent history of helping a contender come within touching distance of climbing the mountain.

Since then, he has endured injury issues and off-field troubles this offseason. However, if those problems are behind him and the Bucs feel he can get close to his 2019 levels, then Sherman is worth a low-risk signing for a Buccaneers team aiming to remain at the summit.