Safety Jimmie recently re-signed a three-year contract with the 49ers to come back as the starting free safety. Ward essentially signed another team-friendly contract that has the team saving money on later years in the deal if they cut him before the deadlines. For now, the deal with $17 million in guarantees with an $8 million signing bonus.
Ward had his best graded season thus far as the primary free safety even though he was not available until week five after sustaining an injury in training camp. He recorded eight pass break-ups on 26 targets and only allowed 177 total passing yards from weeks five through the Super Bowl according to Pro Football Focus. Although he didn’t record an interception, Ward, too, made a strong case for returning in 2020.
The 49ers used a portion of the cap they got back from the recent DeForest Buckner trade, a decision in which they prioritized pass defense (edge rush by re-signing Arik Armstead and re-signing Jimmie Ward) over interior defensive line play. That is not to say Buckner wasn’t a good pass rusher or a lesser player than Armstead. But it points to the idea that the edge position is more valuable than a defensive tackle.
And in terms of secondary cohesion and performance, retaining good secondary players should always be a priority over anything else. And the recent trends in pass defense suggest as much and show why the 49ers chose the path that they did.
Last year, and backed up by further evidence this season, Pro Football Focus published several articles with data that show a stronger correlation between coverage grades, expected points added (EPA), and a longer time to throw and contrasted their pass rush grades with the same data points. What they found last year and this past season was that as time to throw increases, so do coverage grades. Conversely, they found that as the time throw gets longer, pass rush grades get lower, and as time to throw shortens, pass rush grades get higher.
Overall, secondary players and pass coverage are more important than anything else on defense. This isn’t to say the pass rush isn’t important. It is, and the 49ers had arguably the most formidable defensive line in the league. But the 49ers showed they could build both if they have the chance, and that’s why re-signing Ward was such an important decision.
Jimmie Ward’s versatility
The case for locking up Ward is simply that he’s their most versatile player on defense, who lines up in the slot while playing nickel or dime and who is just as effective at playing deep safety in their varied safety shells.
In the slot
Ward did some of his best work in the slot against some of the league’s better receivers. Typically as a nickel defender, they’ll play him in man coverage where his ability really stands out from most defenders.
He didn’t play his first snaps until week five against the Browns due to a training camp injury. His presence wasn’t immediately felt until week six against the Rams in both the pass and run against a team that’s as efficient as any the last three seasons running and throwing.
Here against Cooper Kupp in the slot, Ward has the slot receiver in man coverage. The 49ers are playing cover-1 with a shallow “rat” defender inside and a five-person rush. Kupp is running a pivot route against Ward, but Ward has outside leverage due to the rat defender (Fred Warner) inside. Ward doesn’t give ground and instead mirror’s Kupp’s route back outside as the pass is thrown. He knocked the pass away and forced a turnover on downs.
He can also cover receivers or tight ends deep from the slot, as he does here against Jimmy Graham, breaking up the pass as Graham tries to secure it.
Ward does a good job of avoiding the traffic, likely meant to cause a pick on the defenders in man coverage. Graham is unable to run away from Ward as he recovers from Graham’s cut on the corner route. Quarterback Aaron Rodgers throws the pass over Ward, but Ward is in his hip pocket and reaches in as Graham tries to catch the pass, knocking it away.
Deep safety
He can play just as effectively from 2-high or single-high coverage as well, recording pass break-ups from both positions.
As the boundary safety away from the trips here, Ward’s responsibility is as the buzz defender. The 49ers frequently disguised their single-high coverage’s from a 2-deep safety shell, where they played a cover-3 buzz on third down and long situations primarily. In 3-buzz, the 49ers would drop a safety down into a buzz zone to remove any potential vertical crosser from the #3 receiver in the trips.
Ward buzzes down, sees no crosser from #3, and works back with the quarterback’s eyes. Receiver Devante Adams is running a deep curl route into Ward’s zone and sits waiting for the pass. Ward lunges and bats the pass away.
While he doesn’t have the range that you would like in a true single high safety, he does have the ability to patrol the middle of the field between the numbers effectively. The Ravens know the 49ers tendencies are to drop the weak safety away from the trips, so the Ravens send four receivers to the strong side where the #4 receiver runs the vertical across.
The buzz defender, Marcell Harris, buzzes down to the two underneath crossers, leaving tight end Mark Andrews 1-on-1 with Ward on the crosser. Ward leaps up over Andrews to break up the pass, showing he has the speed to patrol the middle of the field effectively and nearly intercepting the pass and forcing a 4th down punt anyways.
Run defense
Although I’m less concerned with run defense, Ward still showed he can be a force in the run game when needed, adding to an already versatile skill set.
In run defense, he was as good as any of the secondary defenders. Near the line of scrimmage here, he gets into the backfield on 4th and 1 and forces the turnover on downs. pic.twitter.com/jg40LjaWfL
— rich (@richjmadrid) March 4, 2020
He often lined up in the box on base down and wasn’t afraid to stick his nose in the thick of the battle at the point of attack against opposing running games. Here he knifes through the offensive line to make a tackle and a turnover on downs.
Outlook
For now, it appears that the 49ers are content to keep Ward primarily at the free safety position. It’s possible they could move on from him, but with the three-year contract, it seems unlikely. There are several safeties in the draft that could still be in play with the 31st pick in round one, but even that seems less likely if they feel Ward’s potential replacement is on the roster, someone like Tarvarius Moore.
It’s tough to find good secondary players, though consistently, so re-signing Ward makes a ton of sense for team keen on keeping most of their core together for as long as possible. Ward’s versatility will let them shuffle players around in positions they think are best suited to maintaining a level of defensive production, too, as they did with Ward and Moore on several occasions in sub-packages. In the preseason so far, the 49ers have made it clear that prioritizing pass defense is the number priority.