Browns’ Ward is having best seasons of his career
The inherent pressure of playing for a contract extension is not a myth, at least not in the eyes of Denzel Ward.
The Browns cornerback has handled the heat well this year and quietly put together perhaps his best season since his hometown NFL team drafted him fourth overall in 2018 out of Ohio State.
“I would definitely say there’s a little added pressure in a sense,” Ward, a Nordonia High School graduate, said. “I don’t want to say it’s not real, that there’s no pressure, but more so the pressure is just when you’re sitting at home or you’re just off to the side not really doing much.
“That’s not really my focus when I’m out there playing, but it is obviously in the back of your mind, something that’s out there, goals that you may set. But my main thing is just really having fun and playing the game that I’ve been playing since I was a little kid.”
Ward said this week there haven’t been any contract talks recently, and he’s only under contract through the 2022 season after General Manager Andrew Berry exercised the fifth-year option on the player’s rookie deal in April for $13.294 million guaranteed.
At 6-6 and on their bye week, the Browns have five games left to salvage a season of great expectations. Everyone involved knows they would need to go 5-0 or 4-1 — with ample help from other teams — the rest of the way to make the playoffs.
“I’m going to rest up, get my body right and come back to finish the season strong,” Ward said. “We’ve just got to take it a game at a time and then see where we are at the end of the year,” Ward said.
In 11 games this season, Ward has compiled 29 tackles, a half sack, eight passes defensed and three interceptions, including one he returned 99 yards for a touchdown in a 41-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals. He has three picks in the past four games.
Entering the weekend, Profootballfocus.com had Ward ranked fifth among 118 qualifying cornerbacks this season. It’s the highest ranking Ward has received from the website. The next best came in 2018, when he finished 14th among 112 qualifying cornerbacks as a rookie.
“I feel good about what I’ve been able to do, but there’s still a lot more that I individually want to accomplish and help this team achieve. There’s a lot of work that still has to be done,” Ward said.