Could another position change be coming for San Francisco 49ers defensive back Jimmie Ward? The cornerback turned safety might be headed back to cornerback again.
Ward played free safety last year but ended the season on injured reserve due to a broken arm.
"Jimmie Ward has played some outside corner in his career," John Lynch said via 49ers.com on Monday at the NFL owners meetings. "We're going to experiment with that this offseason and see if that's viable."
Ward is a former first-round pick out of Northern Illinois. The 49ers selected him 30th overall in 2014. In four seasons with San Francisco, Ward has appeared in 42 games and started 24 over the past three seasons. Over his career, he has 162 total tackles, two interceptions, a touchdown, two sacks, a forced fumble, and 21 passes defensed.
Ward has had an issue staying healthy throughout his NFL career. A quad injury and stress fracture forced him to miss much of his rookie season. Ward missed time in 2016 with a quad strain and ended the season on injured reserve due to a shoulder injury. Last year, he started training camp in late-July on the physically-unable-to-perform list and missed the beginning of the season with a hamstring injury.
Last year, the 49ers picked up Ward's fifth-year option from his rookie. He has a cap figure of $8.526 million this season.
The 49ers used a third-round draft pick on cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon in 2017. He ended up starting nine games for San Francisco last year. The team also signed veteran All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman on March 10.
Adrian Colbert, who was a seventh-round draft pick last year, filled in well at free safety while Jaquiski Tartt, who also ended 2017 with a broken arm, is likely to start at strong safety.