Regarding Sherman, IIRC he had the lowest scouting grade (NFL.com) of any pick Seattle has made in years. NOBODY outside of PC/JS thought he was going to do anything in the NFL, not even his college coach, Jim Harbaugh.
But when he stepped on the field for the first time, as a starter (Cleveland in 2011), you could see right away that there was something to him.
The next week he called out AJ Green, and then shut down Green in the game. The pick he got on Green was a pick no other corner in the league could have made. I still remember how shocking that play was. It was a perfect pass from Dalton. But Sherman just went up and plucked it against one of the best WRs in the league.
The week after that he had that awesome hit to force a fumble against Dallas at the goal line. It was clear in just three games that Sherman was a born superstar.
Of course, Seattle lost all three of those games and fell to 2-6, so almost nobody noticed. But Sherman was a fantastic player from day one. A lot of us didn't even have a chance to be wrong about him because he was so awesome so quickly.