Ward is facing a six-game tryout
Former first-round draft pick trying to impress 49ers execs
SANTA CLARA >> Jimmie Ward has six paychecks left to draw from the 49ers’ highest-paid base salary this season.
These remaining six games are all that sit between him and his next contract, which may or may not come from the 49ers.
“I’m not looking at free agency right now,” Ward said Monday. “I’ll stay here.”
Here, as in the franchise that spent a 2014 first-round draft pick on him, a franchise that’s bounced him throughout the secondary amid an injury-checkered tenure? It’s not a crazy thought. It’ll take a productive, six-game push to get there.
“This is where I got drafted and where I’d like to stay,” Ward said. “But at the same time there’s a business side to this, too.”
Ward is making $8.5 million this year on the option leg of his rookie deal, which paid him roughly $7.2 million the past four years combined. The 49ers’ nexthighest base salaries this year: Joe Staley ($8.1 million), Pierre Garçon ($6.6 million), Jimmy
Garoppolo ($6.2 million) and Jerick McKinnon ($4.2 million).
“That’s probably what they’re going to look at and be judging these last six games: How can Jimmie Ward help our team for next year?” Ward said Monday. “Other teams are judging me, too.
“It’s all business. Me, I’m looking at it as a regular football game.”
The next game is Sunday, when the 49ers (2-8) visit the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-7). Ward is among several players coach Kyle Shanahan must put under the microscope.
Ward, 27, knows he needs more production and better communication if the 49ers are to re-sign him. Versatility aside, he should be seen as a free safety. It’s his self-professed “home” on the field, after mixed reviews as a cornerback and nickel back.
Do the 49ers think Ward is a better, long-term option at free safety than Adrian Colbert, his 2017 injury replacement who didn’t overly impress in seven games this year before a season-ending ankle injury?
The 49ers could go younger via the draft, or they could go older via free agency, where Earl Thomas could come in and reunite with Richard Sherman for a short-term fix. Other free-agent safeties: Lamarcus Joyner (Rams), Tyrann Mathieu (Texans), Landon Collins (Giants) and Mike Adams (Panthers).
“I look at each game like there’s a lot to gain, but football is what I love to do, and, not to mention, I’m back at safety,” Ward said. “Like, oh my God, it feels good to be back at home.”
Ward is only three games into his return to safety. That’s why these remaining six games are a vital audition, if not for the 49ers then others.
In 50 games and 30 starts, he’s totaled only two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and one forced fumble.
He’s bounced from nickel back his first two years, then to outside cornerback, and over to free safety last year. Uncertain how Sherman’s comeback would go, the 49ers committed Ward to cornerback through the offseason and training camp.
“Our faith in Jimmie has
never wavered,” defensive coordinator Robert Saleh said recently. “… We have always felt he is one of our best 11 players. We don’t keep that a secret. For him, the challenge is going to be to stay healthy. When he is out there, he puts on really good tape.”
Through it all, there’ve been way more injuries (foot, forearm, shoulder, quadriceps, concussion) than game-changing plays (2015 pick-six at Chicago). A hamstring issue flared up the past two training camps and it cost him two games this year.
“When you deal with injuries, they forget about you,” Ward said. “This league is about: what are you doing for me now? ‘OK, what can Jimmie Ward do? We’ve got this guy and this guy, and they’re playing at a high level, so how will he help our team next year?’”
How, indeed? Six games to find out more. Much more.
As the 49ers finished last season with five consecutive wins, they did so without Ward, who fractured his forearm at midseason.
“Last year, I wasn’t a part of it and was on the sideline,” Ward said. “This year, I get to be a part of it, so it’s wonderful.”
Jaquiski Tartt, Ward’s former high school teammate in Mobile, Alabama, looks on pace to return from a two-game hiatus (shoulder). The 49ers gave Tartt a three-year extension this past offseason while letting Ward go prove his worth, no matter his draft status from former general manager Trent Baalke.
“I don’t feel I received too much help when I was young,” Ward said of mentorship. “Coming in as a first-round pick, you had a few guys who talked to you, but there were expectations that everybody just expected you to do stuff. You just have to watch your back, like everybody has something against you.
“I’m a great guy.”
• The 49ers plan to put guard Joshua Garnett’s surgically repaired left thumb in a protective cast that would allow him to play the remaining games.
“The good news is he’ll be available to us and we’ll see if he gets opportunities,” general manager John Lynch told 95.7 The Game on Tuesday morning.
Lynch noted the 49ers were “pleased” with Garnett’s development aside from his health struggles.