Predicting how former Vikings will do with their new teams in 2019
By Nik Edlund
Marcus Sherels – CB/PR (New Orleans Saints)
When Marcus Sherels signed with New Orleans a lot of Vikings fans were stunned and hurt. This guy was someone who did things the hard way. He was a former Golden Gopher who was undrafted and slowly worked his way onto this roster over the course of a few years, and in doing that earned the admiration of the Viking Faithful.
Sherels was also an excellent punt returner who often was the spark Minnesota needed to get them out of a game long funk.
One thing the Saints are not getting with Sherels is a competent NFL cornerback. He struggles in coverage and when he was forced onto the field to play defense, he was a huge liability. But Sherels’ prowess on special teams not just as a returner, but also as a gunner more than make up for it.
To predict what kind of season Sherels will have with the Saints we have to look at their depth chart and see what kind of competition he’ll be facing. Alvin Kamara was the team’s primary punt returner a season ago and is slotted in that position now. The team can’t be comfortable having their star running back be their punt returner. It’s likely Sherels will take over that job so Kamara doesn’t get hurt returning a punt.
Sherels usually ends up with punt return total somewhere in the upper two hundreds to the low three hundreds. There is no reason he won’t put up similar numbers this season with his new squad.
Prediction:
- 305 punt return yards, 1 touchdown
- 6 tackles on defense