Jihad Ward needs to be benched.
Buy.
Not to pin the poor performance of the defense on any one player, because the entire group is ultimately accountable for that, but Ward has been a major disappointment so far.
Jihad has 13 total tackles in six games, with only 5 of them being solo. He has no sacks, no tackles for a loss, no pass deflections, no QB hits.
PFF has 117 players graded at the position, and Ward is #116.
Outside of the box score, Ward consistently loses at the point of attack, he gets pushed off of his spots, he doesn’t maintain his gap assignments — he’s been a complete non-factor.
So why point out that Ward has to be benched, when there are several players who have been quite bad?
The answer is because there are more viable options who could take Ward’s snaps. Take Reggie Nelson for example, who has also been bad. Bench him for who? Keith McGill or Nate Allen?
While players like Denico Autry, Stacy McGee or Darius Latham be used in some of the same spots that Ward is used.