Sourdough Sam
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- Mar 20, 2019
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Witherspoon was having a breakout start to his season before being sidelined with a foot injury. Prior to leaving the Week 3 matchup against the Pittsburgh Steelers early, Witherspoon posted nine total tackles, five passes defensed and one pick-six, the first of his career. Witherspoon is currently ranked as the eight-best corner through the season's first five weeks, according to PFF.
“In my opinion, first it’s his mindset - he’s been very business-like," 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said. “The big thing, to me, is the work that he put in in the weight room over the offseason. He's gotten bigger. He's gotten stronger. Where he is able to press guys at the line of scrimmage and actually keep them from getting off the line of scrimmage or at least being able to disrupt routes without disrupting himself. He's not having to lunge into people where he ends up in a trail position, he can stay on top so he can go look for the ball.
"For Ahkello, the mental makeup in terms of being smart enough to play the position, the foot quickness, all that stuff for us has always been there, but now the mindset of making this business-like every single day, never getting comfortable and his physical makeup of his physical strength has been the biggest differences for me.”
PFF stated:
"A sprained foot has sidelined Witherspoon since Week 3, which is a shame because he was putting together an impressive start to his 2019 campaign prior to the injury. Witherspoon had allowed just six of the 18 passes into his coverage to be completed. That is the best rate of any cornerback this season that has seen 15 or more targets. Any time you are seeing completion rates that low against a player, there is going to be a certain level of luck involved, but Witherspoon has played his part as well with several nice pass breakups."
The 49ers secondary are hoping to get Witherspoon back into the fold over the next couple of weeks.