Denzel Ward

[Ohio]

That guy wins twitter for the day

 

[Douglar]

"Been some years since I went 100 with it"

 

[2 For The Brew]

#FreeDenzel

#freelebron

 

[MGMT]

you pay the guy you saw today; makes the other portion of the season frustrating but you wonder if it’s been a combination or one of systemic adjustment or injury endurance.

 

[Ohio]

I'm not sure which two plays are being referred to as drops, but the one play that the announcers claim was a drop look like good defense to me by the defensive backs who pulled him away from the ball as he was trying to catch it.

Found this video which shows all the plays, you can see Chase had a couple drops while being covered by Newsome:


Nevertheless, I thought Newsome had a good game all things considered.

But importantly, this video provided one of my favorite gifs of all-time, which I absolutely had to create:

It's just perfect...

 

[Los216]

 

[Ohio]

Ha! Love it.

Denzel's "struggles" this season have been largely overblown.

 

[MattyFos.]

Ha! Love it.

Denzel's "struggles" this season have been largely overblown.

The health concerns are what drives most of the Denzel critiques.
But as a defender he's been good even if he's being misused in the defensive scheme.

Let the dude play man

 

[bob2the2nd]

Ha! Love it.

Denzel's "struggles" this season have been largely overblown.

I disagree entirely. He has played large stretches of anywhere from mediocre to replacement level.

One very good game doesn't at all make up for some of his performances. That said he strings together a couple more games like yesterday and then yes early season ward will be forgotten.

 

[Ohio]

I disagree entirely. He has played large stretches of anywhere from mediocre to replacement level.

One very good game doesn't at all make up for some of his performances. That said he strings together a couple more games like yesterday and then yes early season ward will be forgotten.

He sucked the first two weeks, but other than that I think he's been fine. Not great, certainly not elite (excluding yesterday), but fine. His overall PFF grade of 79 this season (which rates as a higher end starter but not quite pro bowl level), reflects that.

Again, I think a lot of it has been overblown due to the first two weeks being arguably the two worst games of his career plus him missing a game due to injury and the attitude seemingly everyone has about his injury history (which I admit has been frustrating, though I think even some of that has been flukey with a concussion, covid, minor nagging things, etc).

Regardless, I hope this performance can get him back on track. I also loved the defense Woods called in this game. We played more press man than I can ever remember since Woods got here, and Ward responded with arguably the best game of his career. I really hope we see more aggressive man defense moving forward, the entire defense overall really seemed to thrive, it wasn't just Ward. JJ3 had easily his best game as a Brown. Newsome had a few incredible PBUs. Troy Hill had his best game as a Brown. I'd argue this was our best defensive performance to date given the opponent and I think the scheme played a major part in that. We manned up against what had been one of the best/most dynamic offenses this season and completely shut their water off in their house.

 

[I'mWithDan]

He sucked the first two weeks, but other than that I think he's been fine. Not great, certainly not elite (excluding yesterday), but fine. His overall PFF grade of 79 this season (which rates as a higher end starter but not quite pro bowl level), reflects that.

Again, I think a lot of it has been overblown due to the first two weeks being arguably the two worst games of his career plus him missing a game due to injury and the attitude seemingly everyone has about his injury history (which I admit has been frustrating, though I think even some of that has been flukey with a concussion, covid, minor nagging things, etc).

Regardless, I hope this performance can get him back on track. I also loved the defense Woods called in this game. We played more press man than I can ever remember since Woods got here, and Ward responded with arguably the best game of his career. I really hope we see more aggressive man defense moving forward, the entire defense overall really seemed to thrive, it wasn't just Ward. JJ3 had easily his best game as a Brown. Newsome had a few incredible PBUs. Troy Hill had his best game as a Brown. I'd argue this was our best defensive performance to date given the opponent and I think the scheme played a major part in that. We manned up against what had been one of the best/most dynamic offenses this season and completely shut their water off in their house.

I think this is fair. I can't speak for everyone but my reaction was to him playing more as a good to high end starter but likely requiring elite CB money to get him here long term. He's hasn't been objectively bad in total but looking across our roster and having truly elite guys who need money, at some point, the money dries up somewhere.

If Denzel strings together a back half of elite level play, he's most certainly going to get paid.......but if he is merely in that 79-80 PFF zone, that is a tough call on paying him big money, given the scheme and overall secondary investment (draft capital + FA dollars) we already have.

 

[natedagg]

I think this is fair. I can't speak for everyone but my reaction was to him playing more as a good to high end starter but likely requiring elite CB money to get him here long term. He's hasn't been objectively bad in total but looking across our roster and having truly elite guys who need money, at some point, the money dries up somewhere.

If Denzel strings together a back half of elite level play, he's most certainly going to get paid.......but if he is merely in that 79-80 PFF zone, that is a tough call on paying him big money, given the scheme and overall secondary investment (draft capital + FA dollars) we already have.

Hard not to root for Ward, especially if we can scheme a little more man. Dude seems the consummate professional, locks down receivers, and he hits hard too. The other side of the coin is the injuries. Like signing him to something massive could lead to a lot of dead cap down the road, or just missed games. It's a big investment. Just devil's advocate here but could Newsome play himself into 1st corner role and then we have Ward's money to allocate elsewhere, with Greedy (from an ability standpoint, not availability) stepping in as a highly-graded #2?

I still hope that we keep him, but at least with how we are set up, there's some redundancy-in-a-good-way for whatever happens between now and then. He played a great game and if we can get a repeat performance against Brown in the Ravens games, that would be a pretty big deal for the team to have a chance to win the division.

 

[Lee]

So ward made 9.5 mill this year and will make 13.5 mill next year.

The top 3 corners make over 17 mill a year, Ward wont get that, next 2 at 16 mil.

Now Xavien Hoard and Bradberry make 15 and 14.5 mill a year respectively.

The biggest thing about contracts is new money, how much over what you make will eat into the cap. Ward will make what 15 mill a year? 16 mill? At 16 mill its a 6.5 increase over this year, 3 mill increase over next. I really think Ward is very signable going forward.

Look at it this way, if we have to pick between Conklin and Ward i think Ward is the no brainer and draft a RT in the first 2 rounds.

 

[bob2the2nd]

So ward made 9.5 mill this year and will make 13.5 mill next year.

The top 3 corners make over 17 mill a year, Ward wont get that, next 2 at 16 mil.

Now Xavien Hoard and Bradberry make 15 and 14.5 mill a year respectively.

The biggest thing about contracts is new money, how much over what you make will eat into the cap. Ward will make what 15 mill a year? 16 mill? At 16 mill its a 6.5 increase over this year, 3 mill increase over next. I really think Ward is very signable going forward.

Look at it this way, if we have to pick between Conklin and Ward i think Ward is the no brainer and draft a RT in the first 2 rounds.

the issue will be how each party (Ward and the Browns) think missing 25% of a the year matters. When healthy Ward is definitely/probably a top 10 Corner. However he has missed enough time I am not about to pay him close to what a top 10 CB makes.

 

[Kbiz]

Could you incentivize the contract based on games started / played, etc.?

If he was durable, he gets top 5 CB money. The problem is that even though he misses roughly 25-30% of games each season, it's not as simple as discounting his contract that much. If you miss the back half / playoffs due to injury, that's an issue.

I don't think we even touch Ward's extension talks until the end of the year. Hopefully he's past the woes for this season but nothing in the past tells us that will be the case moving forward.