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SANTA CLARA Arik Armstead Jersey , Calif. (AP)Richard Sherman officially has gone to the other side.The four-time All-Pro cornerback signed a three-year deal with the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, two days after being released by the rival Seattle Seahawks.The deal reportedly is worth up to $39.15 million.”Richard is one of the premier competitors Kyle and I have ever encountered,” 49ers general Manager John Lynch said, referring to coach Kyle Shanahan. ”We look forward to him sharing his wealth of experience and his passion for the game of football with our team.”Richard has long been looked at as the prototypical corner in our scheme and the opportunity to have him mentor our players was one we needed to attack. Most importantly, we are excited to have a championship-caliber corner on the field for the 49ers.”Sherman played an integral role in the fierce NFC West rivalry between Seattle and San Francisco earlier this decade. With the Seahawks retooling their defense, he became expendable. His deflection on a potential winning touchdown pass in the 2013 NFC championship game against the 49ers led to an interception that sent the Seahawks to the Super Bowl, which they won.Sherman then celebrated a Thanksgiving night win in a road game against the 49ers the following season by eating a turkey leg on the 50-yard line.Now, the player who was reviled so much by 49ers fans is joining their team after the Seahawks decided he wasn’t worth his $13 million salary for 2018. San Francisco hopes he can make a big impact even as he turns 30 later this month and is coming off an Achilles tendon injury that cost him half of the 2017 season. Sherman also had a cleanup surgery on his opposite ankle during the offseason.The 49ers had a glaring need at cornerback with 2017 third-round pick Ahkello Witherspoon and slot cornerback K’Waun Williams the only players under contract with extensive experience. The Niners believe Sherman can fill that role in a defense modeled by coordinator Robert Saleh after the one that had so much success in Seattle. Saleh was a former defensive assistant with the Seahawks.Sherman became a star in Seattle, bringing a brash attitude and willingness to speak out on any topic to go along with his stellar play. His best seasons came in 2013 and 2014, when Seattle made two Super Bowl appearances, and he has 32 career interceptions.He still was one of the better cornerbacks the past three seasons, ranking second in the NFL by allowing just 49.2 percent of passes against him to be caught Frank Gore Color Rush Jersey , according to Pro Football Focus.Sherman played his college ball in the Bay Area at Stanford under former coach Jim Harbaugh, who then went up against Sherman during his four seasons in charge of the 49ers.— SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — When Jimmy Garoppolo got thrown into the lineup as San Francisco’s quarterback just weeks after joining the 49ers, simply getting a play off in time was an accomplishment.Garoppolo overcame that limited knowledge of coach Kyle Shanahan’s offense to put together an impressive 5-0 finish to the season as one of the NFL’s most productive quarterbacks down the stretch.It will be a very different Garoppolo heading into Sunday’s season opener at Minnesota than he was in his first start in Chicago in December. He was given a $137.5 million contract in the offseason and has had months to learn the whys and hows of Shanahan’s complex offense.“We were trying to avoid the delay of game in Chicago,” he said. “That was a big part of it. I think every week last year I progressively got more and more comfortable with winning obviously and learning new things every week. Every week I was hearing new things for the first time that I had never heard before. So, it was that comfort level that just keeps growing as you get more along with the offense and learn more.”That comfort level is astronomically higher after getting more practice time with his receivers and offense.Garoppolo also took advantage of the opportunity to spend more time away from the 49ers facility with his teammates, whether it was informal sessions or non-football bonding to build chemistry with players who were almost strangers when he played last year.“Last year I was in a tough situation because I really didn’t have any extra time to go out and hang out with the guys,” he said. “I was trying to learn as quickly as possible. So, this offseason we’ve had a lot more time to do things together away from football and kind of get to know each other on a more personal level.”How Garoppolo fares this year is one of the most intriguing questions in the NFL as he has shown great promise winning all seven of his career starts to earn the lucrative contract but still has very little track record.What Garoppolo has done on the field has been impressive. He completed 67.4 percent of his passes last season, averaging 8.8 yards per attempt with seven TDs, five interceptions and a 96.2 rating.Among quarterbacks with at least 100 attempts last season, Garoppolo ranked first in yards per attempt https://www.49ersfanshop.com/Bradley-Pinion-Jersey , fourth in completion percentage. His 308.4 yards passing per game in his five starts also would have led the league had he played a full season.Defenses now have had plenty of time to study Garoppolo in San Francisco’s system but Shanahan doesn’t see that being a major hindrance.“You hear that all the time with quarterbacks,” he said. “You figure the scheme out and then you stop plays. Then, you put other stuff in to get other people open and you see if the quarterback is capable of doing other stuff. I think Jimmy’s capable of making any type of throw. I think he sees the field very well. It’s not like they’re going to learn how to stop him from running with the ball and then stop him from throwing it. Jimmy has a very talented arm. He knows how to play in the pocket. Hopefully we can continue to get guys here to separate, help get people open in zone and give him time to go through progressions and give him a running game not to put all the pressure on him.”The 49ers running game took a big hit over the weekend when projected starter Jerick McKinnon went down with a season-ending right knee injury. He was one of San Francisco’s main additions in free agency and was being counted on to be a big threat as a runner and a receiver.Now the 49ers will count on second-year back Matt Breida, who has 105 career carries, and veteran Alfred Morris, who was signed midway through training camp and has never caught more than 17 passes in his six seasons, instead of McKinnon.“Since the day we signed him we’ve been game planning for Minnesota,” Shanahan said. “So, I’m not going to lie, it changes things pretty drastically.”