49er’ S Jimmie Ward: Growing the target on his back from LA Rams

Couple of weeks ago I woke up hearing San Francisco 49ers’ free safety Jimmie Ward saying he doesn’t know why the LA Rams, and more specifically, head coach Sean McVay, always pick on him when the two teams face each other head-to-head.

My first reaction was just, well, ST*U.

But then, I thought, I dunno, maybe could it possibly conceivably be that you ARE  the weakest link, Jimmie?

No, wait. That other Jimmy in your town – the one that dates porn stars, injured all the time, Street Clothes 2.0, you know the one – that JimmyG might actually nudge you out of being the weaker of the two weak links. But he plays offense when he plays.

How about this, then? Your team got bookend weak links. One on offense and one on defense.

Garoppolo & Ward. Reminds me of ex-Patriots player BenJarvus Green-Ellis. Sounds like another law firm.

Now, he’s talking trash about the Rams’ new quarterback, Matthew Stafford, saying he’s the same quarterback who was in Detroit. Doesn’t fear him. Then he went on to question whether Matthew Stafford truly represents an upgrade over former LA Rams quarterback Jared Goff, whom the team traded to Detroit in exchange for Stafford (plus three draft picks). Suddenly the guy who has not stayed healthy for 16 games since 2015 is an NFL analyst?

"“I like Stafford, but they still will have the same players that he’ll be throwing the ball to,” Ward told Grant Cohn of SI.com. “He’s the same quarterback who was on the Detroit Lions and they still didn’t go to the playoffs, and they had Megatron [Calvin Johnson]. What was the problem over there in Detroit? Are you going to blame the city? What was the problem? Was it the money? If the city didn’t have enough money to bring players over there, why even have an NFL team? That’s a big question mark.“They went and traded Jared Goff, who went to the playoffs several times and went to the Super Bowl. Yeah, he lost. He went to the Super Bowl, though. I’ve yet to see that with Matt Stafford. And I’m saying, he’s still great. I believe he’s a top 10 quarterback, maybe top 5. I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m just going off of what I see. And I see Jared Goff got those boys to the Super Bowl.” Safety Jimmie Ward as per Evan Orris"

Man, did that target on his back just grow exponentially, or what?

Los Angeles Rams

Since Jimmie Ward opened up this debate, let’s look at some Matthew Stafford statistics against the 49ers since Ward joined the team?  In 2015, Stafford lit up the 49ers’ defense by going 29 of 37 (a shocking 78.4 percent completion rate, 301 yards, and two touchdowns. In that game, he threw four passes over 20+ yards. The Lions won that one, 32-17.  Stafford had a passer rating of 118.6. Ward? He played 55 defensive snaps and made two tackles.

The two teams faced off again in 2018. In that one, Stafford threw for 34 of 53 passes for 347 yards and three touchdowns. He threw three 20+ yard passes in that one and had a 101.7 passer rating.  The Lions lost to the 49ers 30-27. Ward played 20 defensive snaps without a single statistic recorded.

In neither game against the 49ers did Matthew Stafford throw an interception. Five touchdowns, 648 yards, zero interceptions. That doesn’t sound like a guy Jimmie Ward really wants to face twice a season, does it? It REALLY doesn’t sound like a guy he wanted to piss off, to look for him on the football field and make him pay by humiliating him on the football field.

He grew that target from a skin tag to a full-blown melanoma. That target done metastasized. He has just super-sized that bulls-eye. Maybe he didn’t get the memo. Intimidation caused Jared Goff to second guess himself when he faced the 49ers. Trash talking will only have the opposite effect for Ward in this one. Think Juju Smith-Schuster dancing on the Bengals logo at the fifty-yard line, followed by the huge hit by Bengals Von Bell that caused a fumble. It’s always fun and games before someone takes notice. This one may make Matthew Stafford take notice. We certainly have.

We see you, playing that Cover-Three scheme deep middle role that Seattle made so famous. Only you’re no Earl Thomas.

Bomb’s away, Jimmie Ward. Tighten up that chin strap. He comes that football.  You only have yourself to blame if something bad happens.