Raiders general manager Reggie McKenzie and his staff selected Illinois defensive lineman Jihad Ward in the second round of last week’s NFL draft and believe he has the drive and athletic ability to be good against the run and as a pass rusher.
At 6-foot-6 and 295 pounds, Ward is a former high school wide receiver who didn’t become a defensive lineman until college. The Raiders believe he can raise his game on the next level.
“They liked the way I worked,” Ward said of his conversations with the Raiders before the draft. “They were just telling me how everything was going on. They liked my work ethic and (told me) to keep grinding with it and to stay hungry with it. It isn’t over for me. I’m happy to be a Raider.”
But while McKenzie generally received good reviews for his 2016 draft class, at least one observer, Mike Renner of the analytics website Pro Football Focus, has doubts about taking Ward in the second round.
This week, Renner included Ward on his list of “The 16 worst draft picks” of 2016, at No. 9.
Wrote Renner: “Ward posted average grades in college and then went to the (NFL) Combine and posted below-average athletic testing numbers. At that point we have a hard time seeing the upside from the Raiders’ second-round pick. His 42 percent win rate in the one-on-one pass-rushing drills at the Senior Bowl was the third-worst rate of any defensive end there.”
Ward, in fact, had worse stats in 2015 than he did in 2014. As a senior he had just 1½ sacks, 3½ tackles for loss and 53 tackles. As a junior he had three sacks, 8½ tackles for loss and 51 tackles.
Raiders
Ward says he knows he can be better than that.
“Everybody doesn’t always have a good season,” he told the Raiders website. “Numbers don’t lie at the end of the day, but that is how you learn from situations. You learn from it and get better and don’t give up. There is still time to shine out there. Everybody knows that I didn’t have the best numbers last season, but it is all about getting better and learning from your mistakes.”
