Now with 49ers, Pierre Garcon, Richard Sherman meet on field again

SANTA CLARA - Pierre Garcon and Richard Sherman didn't say a word to each other. They lined up face to face at the line of scrimmage, staring eye to eye, carrying four-year-old grudges.

On Oct. 7, 2014, when Garcon was with the Washington Redskins and Sherman was with the Seattle Seahawks, the grudge was born. Sherman held Garcon to just 23 receiving yards. Garcon threw Sherman to the ground twice - once by the face mask and once by the hair.

After the game, Sherman said, “Pierre did a few things. When you can't get open, you gotta do whatever you can.” Then, Sherman said, “Pierre doesn't matter in this league.”

Hard to forget that one.

Later that night, Garcon posted on Twitter, “Silence is the best reply to a fool.”

The next week, Garcon changed his mind about the silence.

“He's just another player that, you know, plays defense in this league,” Garcon said of Sherman. “He's not anything special.”

Now, they're teammates.

Sherman described their current relationship this past Wednesday: “It's football. He understands that. I understand that. It's competitive. We will go at it every day. You put your best foot forward, you try to win every rep and once it's all said and done, you slap hands and walk off. I'm sure it will be fine.”

On Sunday, Garcon gave an even more tepid description of his relationship with Sherman: “It's cool,” Garcon said. “He's another teammate.”

Another human being. Nothing more.

That was the subtext to their brief encounter Sunday morning.

THE RACE

Richard Sherman looked 40 years old.

It was his first day in pads, his first taste of real football since he tore his Achilles on Nov. 9. He didn't practice Saturday - the 49ers gave him the day off. Sunday was his big debut.

After he finished warming up, the team separated into position groups and started doing one-on-one drills. Offensive linemen faced defensive linemen. Running backs faced linebackers. Cornerbacks faced wide receivers.

Sherman faced Marquise Goodwin, the fastest player on the 49ers, maybe in the entire NFL.

Before the Achilles injury, Sherman could cover Goodwin. Sherman used to be one of the best cornerbacks in the NFL.

He and Goodwin faced each other Week 2 last year in Seattle and Goodwin caught just three passes for 26 yards.

On Sunday, the result was different.

Sherman lined up six inches away from Goodwin's face mask before the play. An aggressive bump-and-run technique, Sherman's signature.

The center snapped the ball, Goodwin chopped his feet - a quick left-right-left, forcing Sherman to guess which way he would go.

Sherman guessed wrong. He lunged to his right, grabbed air and Goodwin ran by him on the left and up the sideline. Sherman turned and chased, and as he ran, he grimaced and pumped his arms hard.

He seemed like a car stuck in second gear. When Goodwin caught the ball over his right shoulder, Sherman was five yards behind him. A spectator.

“Just trying to get his football legs back,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said after practice. “He doesn't have anything to prove. Just has to get back in shape and get his legs back.”

CONNECTION

Goodwin and Jimmy Garoppolo have one. Pierre Garcon and Garoppolo don't.

Garcon was out with a broken neck next last year when the 49ers traded for Garoppolo. They never played together. Garoppolo played with Goodwin, and they clicked.

On Sunday, they connected for a 40-yard completion up the sideline. Goodwin ran by cornerback Jimmie Ward, Garoppolo floated the ball over Goodwin's shoulder and he caught it in stride. A perfect deep pass.

“We stayed after yesterday, worked on a couple of them and hit a nice one today,” Garoppolo said. “It's probably one of the hardest things to do in football and it's probably one of the last things that a quarterback and receiver get in connection with.”

Toward the end of practice, Garoppolo attempted to build a deep-ball connection with Garcon.

Garcon ran toward the end zone, thinking Garoppolo would throw deep. Garoppolo threw toward the sideline, thinking Garcon would break off his route and come back toward the ball. They both thought wrong. The ball landed out of bounds.

“Miscommunication, I guess,” Garcon said in the 49ers auditorium. “I didn't have a chance at it. We'll go back and watch it and get it fixed.”

Garcon walked out of the auditorium, and a few minutes later Garoppolo came in and spoke about the idea of completing passes to Garcon. A good idea in theory.

“He's got a unique skill set to him,” Garoppolo said. “He's so powerful. When he separates from the corner, when he catches it, any one of them could be a house call. That's how physical and how fast he is. It's good to have him out there always, but we're working on the connection still, obviously.”

Call it an unconnected connection.