Sherman says Seahawks' defense had off year in 2015

Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman is holding his teammates to an exacting standard.

Sherman is an integral part of the Seahawks' lauded defense and was named to his third consecutive Pro Bowl in 2015. Although the Seahawks led the NFL in scoring defense, Sherman feels his unit underachieved last season.

"An off year for us is being what, No. 2 in pass defense and No. 2 in total yards? That’s a bad year for us," Sherman said to ESPN's Sheil Kapadia. "For most people, they’d give their left arm to have our defense. But for our standard and what we do, being the No. 2 pass defense and being the No. 1 scoring defense, being No. 1 in total yards, that’s an off year."

Sherman cultivated a reputation as a perfectionist, but was proud of his individual performance.

"I thought I had a pretty good year," Sherman said. "Obviously dropped three or four picks, so gotta clean that up. But yeah, I felt like I had a good year."

After appearing in consecutive Super Bowls, the Seahawks were eliminated by the Carolina Panthers in the divisional round, and Sherman feels the extra rest will help his club entering the 2016 campaign.

"Guys just come back renewed," Sherman said. "We had two years of going to the wire, and you beat your body up to a certain degree playing that long. This year, we got two, three extra weeks off. That does a lot for the mentality and the body and just let your body rest. You always want to make it to the Super Bowl and win it and do all that. But there was a silver lining of sorts in not making it last year and letting guys rest their bodies and their minds. Because there’s a lot of football on your body after a while, so guys got to heal."

Boasting All-Pro-caliber players across the board, the Seahawks' defense ought to remain one of the league's elite groups once again.