Why safety Jimmie Ward may be the 49ers’ most underrated player on defense
A strong case can be made Jimmie Ward is the most underrated player on the 49ers’ top-ranked passing defense.
It’s Ward who’s most often the last line of defense as the free safety. The role has often been called the “eraser” by the coaching staff because it’s required to make up for mistakes or blown coverages elsewhere.
Perhaps the most telling statistic about Ward’s effectiveness is the team’s knack for preventing big plays, which will be crucial if San Francisco is going to beat the Packers in Sunday’s NFC Championship game to advance to the Super Bowl.
Consider: The 49ers during the regular season tied with the Buffalo Bills for the fewest number of pass plays allowed of at least 20 yards with 34.
And the last time San Francisco played Aaron Rodgers and the Packers in late November, Ward had a pair of key pass breakups, including on a long throw down the right sideline to Jimmy Graham in the second quarter when the score was just 10-0. Rodgers escaped the pocket to his right and hit Graham in stride, but Ward stuck his hand where the ball was and prevented the talented tight end from making the grab and getting a first down at San Francisco’s 26-yard line.
A completion would have put Green Bay in scoring range, possibly changing the tenor of the game before the 49ers went on a 13-0 burst to hit halftime leading, 23-0. Ward’s break up came on third down, forcing a punt.
Rodgers, meanwhile, went 0-for-8 that night on passes that traveled more than 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
“There’s not a lot of free safeties like him who is an exceptional cover guy along with the range he has in the middle of the field and his ability to do different things and the instinctiveness that he plays with, the physicality that he plays with,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said this week.
Ward quietly put together a strong season
Ward for the season is San Francisco’s fourth-highest graded defensive player by Pro Football Focus, behind Richard Sherman, Arik Armstead and Nick Bosa. And Ward, who was named a Pro Bowl alternate, is the sixth-highest graded safety in the league.
Ward is known around the team’s facility for his work ethic and preparation.
“It starts early in the week,” he said.
Ward studies opponents’ quarterbacks and how he might look off safeties. He’ll watch their “quick game” and try to determine if there are tendencies he can glean before the snap. Then he evaluates how the quarterback does in three- and five-step drops, and then carries what he learned into practice against the scout team.
“Just the small details,” he said. “Because in the game, the small details will get you beat.”
San Francisco’s trend of not allowing explosive plays continued during most of the Divisional Round victory over the Minnesota Vikings.
Save for Ahkello Witherspoon’s blown coverage of Stefon Diggs, when he allowed a 41-yard touchdown catch, quarterback Kirk Cousins averaged just 4.3 net yards per pass attempt while San Francisco’s defense throttled Minnesota’s aerial attack. Cousins’ didn’t have any gains longer than 16 yards until the fourth quarter when the game had already been decided.
Ward broke up a fourth-down pass to Diggs late that would have set up a scoring chance. He thumped the star receiver with a clean hit, shoulder to shoulder, that prevented him from catching Cousins’ toss deep down the left sideline with Emmanuel Moseley in coverage. Ward also effectively ended the game with a hard tackle of tight end Irv Smith Jr. for a 21-yard gain on fourth-and-22.
A talent for avoiding penalties
The challenges for a free safety in the modern NFL are immense with the new rules emphasizing the safety of pass catchers. Yet Ward has gone the entire season without being flagged for an illegal hit. He’s been called for one penalty this year: a controversial pass interference against Julio Jones in the loss to the Falcons last month.
Ward’s knack for avoiding plays that hurt his team is one of the things that has endeared him to his coaches since Kyle Shanahan and his staff were hired in 2017.
“It’s very hard to have a violent hit in this league without a penalty just because of how fast it happens. It’s hard to see for the refs and everyone. So, in order to do that and not get any penalties you’ve got to be a very skilled athlete, you’ve got to be fearless, you’ve got to be running there at full speed not thinking about anything except where to put your shoulder pad,” Shanahan said.
“And he’s done a great job of that. There’s been some that have been violent where I’m just waiting for a flag. But the ref’s saw it right, because you look at it on the big screen and he doesn’t have a helmet-to-helmet. He’s been huge for us this year. I think everyone knows how big of a fan I am of Jimmie and it’s been great that he’s just been able to stay healthy this year.”
Said Ward: “It’s not really about style points, it’s about getting a guy down. And I feel like that’s what I do pretty well.”
Health has been the key issue for Ward since the 49ers made him a first-round draft pick in 2014. He ended four of his five seasons on injured reserve while dealing mostly with bone fractures. He missed the first three games of this season with a fractured finger after breaking his collar bone during OTAs.
It led to Ward deleting various social media accounts while getting hassled by fans for his lengthy injury history. Ward signing a one-year deal in the offseason was hardly met with applause from the fan base given his inability to stay on the field. But the move appears to be paying off for both sides.
Ward solidifies 49ers defense
Ward’s 14-game stretch of consecutive starts are the most since his second season when he appeared in all 16 games.
“Jimmie is I think one of the greatest athletes I’ve ever been on a team with. He’s a complete freak of nature,” tight end George Kittle said. “He’s incredibly fast. He’s incredibly strong. He’s smart, and he’s incredibly physical, too. He’s really an all-around player, and I think we missed a lot the last few years with him being injured. It really hurt our defense.”
Kittle quipped the last time he went against Ward in one-on-one drills in the middle of the season he won the practice rep. Ward contended he forced an incompletion on the rep before that, putting the two tied at one apiece. There haven’t been any one-on-one drills since then.
Ward is entering free agency in the spring and could be one of the best safeties on the open market. However, the demand for safeties has fluctuated significantly over the past two seasons. Two years ago, a number of safeties took a long time to sign as the position was apparently devalued.
Last offseason, there appeared to be a market correction as Earl Thomas (Ravens), Tyrann Mathieu (Chiefs), Landon Collins (Washington) and LaMarcus Joyner (Raiders) all signed contracts with at least $21 million in guarantees.
Ward has said he only wants to play safety going forward after spending his first five seasons moving from slot cornerback, to outside corner, to safety, to corner and now back to safety full time.
A knock on Ward? He hasn’t had an interception since 2016. If he got one against Rodgers, in the NFC title game, underrated may no longer apply.
This story was originally published January 17, 2020 at 6:57 AM.
