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Broncos release veteran S TJ Ward


RaidersAreOne

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3 hours ago, vikingsrule said:

Ward isn't a good coverage Safety. Zimmer needs versatility for his defense to be effective. Sendejo isn't a great starter but he's smart.

I quite like Sendejo. Harrison is about as good as a safety gets in today's NFL, however.

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7 hours ago, Displayname said:

Any ideal fits for him to go?

 

edit: anything really wrong with him?

He is a 30 year old safety who hasnt played a single preseason snap and missed time in TC with lingering hamstring issues. I think the Broncos recognized the beginning of the end with TJ Ward being a high impact player when they saw injuries and age starting to pile up and got out of it early.

Additionally the Broncos cut ties because they have a good young safety with far better ball skills in Justin Simmons who they think can provide similar impact when you factor in Wards age and ability to stay healthy.

 

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1 hour ago, AkronsWitness said:

He is a 30 year old safety who hasnt played a single preseason snap and missed time in TC with lingering hamstring issues. I think the Broncos recognized the beginning of the end with TJ Ward being a high impact player when they saw injuries and age starting to pile up and got out of it early.

Additionally the Broncos cut ties because they have a good young safety with far better ball skills in Justin Simmons who they think can provide similar impact when you factor in Wards age and ability to stay healthy.

 

Simmons is the 2017 guy, but the likely final straw was the emergence of Jamal Carter, a UDFA priority sign (DEN spent their highest $ for him of all the UDFA's).  He really flashed in the PS and Elway & co. became convinced he wouldn't clear waivers if they tried to sneak him to the PS.  With Simmons and Will Parks already on the roster, keeping 5 safeties when we have our issues on the OL & DL wasn't feasible.   Cutting Ward allowed us to keep Darian Stewart, Simmons (new starter), Parks (the swing guy) and Carter (the stash/ST guy for now) as our 4 safeties.  Given our track record in identifying late-round DB's, I have to trust in the evaluations done here.

The Carter emergence was unexpected, so that explains why Elway pulled the trigger so late.  Sucks for Ward, because no doubt he's losing a fair amount of $.  But if you want the reasoning, it goes well beyond Simmons - he's ready for sure to replace and likely improve on Ward's pass-coverage deficiencies.  It's Ward's run support blitz timing and enforcer traits where it's iffier what happens.  But given our sudden number crunch at safety, well, as the saying goes, better to part ways a year too soon than a year too late.

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10 hours ago, Jakuvious said:

Basically this. Ward has been a little overrated for awhile, but he's still too good to be a last minute cut like this.

Yeah.  I figure playing behind that front and being part of that dominant defense probably flattered him a bit...But you've gotta think there are at least a few teams out there who could get some good mileage out of his services.

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Glad he won't lose any $ in the release.   That part really stunk on our part.   He may be fading skills wise but he gave his all for us and was under contract.  TJ release him on last day of PS and have him lose a lot of $ would have been hard for him and his former teammates to swallow - this helps soften the optics around the timing.    If Jamal Carter didn't shine no doubt he'd have just played out his contract and walked next year in FA but now he actually gains 500k.   At his age not losing any $ is huge.   Good for him.  

Wish him well in Tampa.  

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