Jimmie Ward Strong Safety

Originally posted by Young2Rice:
I assume he was sitting right behind the ref at the snap?

Yes @3:25. Also the shiftiness in the hips.

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

Originally posted by DarthNiner:

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

lol, WTH am I looking at?

Yeah s**t gif but his closing speed and ball tracking. The gif really doesn't do it's justice.

I assume he was sitting right behind the ref at the snap?

That gif is showing the range and speed of Jimmie Ward, he's the one falling down after intercepting the ball.

Originally posted by Kolohe:

Originally posted by Young2Rice:

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

Originally posted by DarthNiner:

Originally posted by JiksJuicy:

lol, WTH am I looking at?

Yeah s**t gif but his closing speed and ball tracking. The gif really doesn't do it's justice.

I assume he was sitting right behind the ref at the snap?

That gif is showing the range and speed of Jimmie Ward, he's the one falling down after intercepting the ball.

Nice. He picked it off in a lot of traffic too. Good concentration.

Originally posted by SofaKing:

Good call, Buck! You were hyping this kid up for a while.

Thanks.

Now, Ward just has to prove himself on the field. I think he will.

I really hope he does, it will be good for the team, and make me look smarter than I am.

No offense but you gotta consider watching these highlights this guy played in the MAC and not the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, etc. I highly doubt he would be making the same type of plays against stiffer competition.

I looked up the players who were drafted from the MAC in recent years and there have been very few impact players. The ones that were - were mostly offensive not defensive players. Sorry but that does not bode well for this draft pick.

Niners have had two good first round draft picks in recent years - Reid and Aldon Smith. Both came from a proven conference like the SEC. I don't know why SF switched from that formula for success. It proves strength of competition does matter when grading talent. Also,they are more ready to play in the NFL.

1) They drafted a safety. So why did the Niners sign Antoine Bethea for 4 years and $26 million?

2) They are going to convert Ward to a corner? If his coverage skills were that great why wasn't he playing corner at Northern Illinois? Seriously.

3) If Ward converts to corner (which wont be easy) who exactly is going to be his mentor playing CB in the NFL since the Niners lost both their starting veteran corners to free agency?

4) Who exactly did he play against in the MAC to make one think he can play CB against NFL wide receiver type talent?

5) Did the 49ers look at the low percentage of MAC defensive players drafted in the past years who actually had an impact in the NFL?

I think these are all good questions. I am not trolling.

Well, Khalil Mack was a MAC player being at Buffalo so you would be saying that he couldn't have an impact. Arguably he is the best pass-rushing specialist to come out of the draft, and some mocks had him going #1 overall, which i had no problem with. I wouldn't be shocked if we picked another small-school player such as Pierre Desir in the 2nd or 3rd round of this draft because he has good height at corner and he has good coverage skills against taller receivers. The Jimmie Ward pick does not exactly mean he will be a Free Safety or Strong Safety, I think Harbaugh wants to groom him as a nickel/dime corner that the niners use about 60% of the time. He has a little less than average speed, but he gets on the ball quickly and can locate the football fairly well. 7 picks this last year...he could surprise us all by being a stud

Originally posted by Mr.Mcgibblets:

# 30.... no joke.

Good call

1. Could this post have gone in another thread about Ward?

2. Are there other threads about Ward?

3. If there are other threads about Ward, why didn't the OP post in those threads?

4. Does asking the same question over and over about Ward justify creating a new thread?

Not trolling. Just curious.

-EAD

Originally posted by Touchdown49ers2014:
1) They drafted a safety. So why did the Niners sign Antoine Bethea for 4 years and $26 million?

2) They are going to convert Ward to a corner? If his coverage skills were that great why wasn't he playing corner at Northern Illinois? Seriously.

3) If Ward converts to corner (which wont be easy) who exactly is going to be his mentor playing CB in the NFL since the Niners lost both their starting veteran corners to free agency?

4) Who exactly did he play against in the MAC to make one think he can play CB against NFL wide receiver type talent?

5) Did the 49ers look at the low percentage of MAC defensive players drafted in the past years who actually had an impact in the NFL?

I think these are all good questions. I am not trolling.

Legit questions. Will try and answer the best I can:

1. Bethea was signed to play Whitner's old position at SS. Now, the 49ers do play a cover 2 scheme where both safeties are interchangeable for the most part, but there is speculation the 49ers want to transition into more of a single-high safety look, like the Seahawks do with Thomas. If that's true, in the future we could look at Reid playing SS closer to the LOS, with Ward up top as the roaming FS.

2. Ward is not exactly being converted to corner. Baalke has confirmed Ward will initially concentrate on being a slot corner and safety. Ward played in the slot quite a bit at NIU, and did it very well. So that's not a transition for him. If he can learn to play outside corner, that's a bonus. He has the skill set to play anywhere in the secondary.

3. The best mentor Ward can have is Ed Donatell. That's the only man he needs, and he's a great DB coach. Having a player mentor is less vital if he's to concentrate at corner, since they are typically alone on an island. Safeties often communicate with each other, so chemistry is more vital there. Both Reid and Bethea are really smart players, so there should be no communication problems at safety.

4. Good question. The answer to that is really in the tape. Ward impressed enough on film to universally be regarded as a late 1st to early 2nd round prospect. That's pretty rare for a MAC defender. He didn't go up against elite competition, but he dominated at that level, which is what you're looking for to consider taking a player from that conference high in the draft.

5. Very few MAC players get drafted per year. Only 10 or so come off the board, a handful of those being defenders. I don't know what the % success rate is, but it's uncommon simply because not many get drafted. Most recently, Muhammed Wilkerson went 30th overall in 2012. He's now one of the elite 3-4 lineman in the game. Khalil Mack just went 5th overall. We've also seen corners like Tramaine Brock (Belhaven), Cortland Finnegan (Samford), Brent Grimes (Shippensburg) become impact starters after coming from conferences far weaker than the MAC. Talent is talent.

To be completely honest with you. I think you are playing with tools outside of your mental capacity.
Time for you to go learn a little about Ward, our defense, the game of football, and I'm sure there are other things. ( feel free to pitch it on here guys)

Originally posted by Touchdown49ers2014:
No offense but you gotta consider watching these highlights this guy played in the MAC and not the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac 12, etc. I highly doubt he would be making the same type of plays against stiffer competition.

I looked up the players who were drafted from the MAC in recent years and there have been very few impact players. The ones that were - were mostly offensive not defensive players. Sorry but that does not bode well for this draft pick.

Niners have had two good first round draft picks in recent years - Reid and Aldon Smith. Both came from a proven conference like the SEC. I don't know why SF switched from that formula for success. It proves strength of competition does matter when grading talent. Also,they are more ready to play in the NFL.

The bold says absolutely nothing about how Jimmie Ward will fare in the NFL. Not all SEC QB's have been successful in the NFL, aside from Dez Bryant, not all WR's from Oklahoma St. have been solid players in the NFL. You see, there are a lot of history in the NFL about drafting players, will history always repeat itself, no. The 9ers have never had a minority QB that has taken them to the playoffs or even win them a game. You following me??

Yes ^^^ TALENT IS TALENT. Brock went undrafted and he will be the number 1 or number 2 corner when Culliver comes back. Good read SofaKing, nice article

Originally posted by IEAD:
1. Could this post have gone in another thread about Ward?

2. Are there other threads about Ward?

3. If there are other threads about Ward, why didn't the OP post in those threads?

4. Does asking the same question over and over about Ward justify creating a new thread?

Not trolling. Just curious.

-EAD

lol this

Originally posted by IEAD:

1. Could this post have gone in another thread about Ward?

2. Are there other threads about Ward?

3. If there are other threads about Ward, why didn't the OP post in those threads?

4. Does asking the same question over and over about Ward justify creating a new thread?

Not trolling. Just curious.

-EAD

Did another thread get merged into this thread?


I started this thread on March 7th. There were no other threads about Jimmie Ward when I started this thread.

I have to think that an essentially negative thread on Ward got merged into this thread.