Jimmie Ward Says Sammy Watkins is the Reason the Chiefs Won the Super Bowl
Jimmie Ward is the most interesting man on the 49ers.
If you ask him a simple question, you will not get a simple answer. You'll get a fascinating, surprising, often hilarious answer that's far better than your question.
Take this exchange from my recent hour-long interview with Ward. He managed to take a simple question about his extended tenure with the 49ers into an answer that mentioned Colin Kaepernick, Greg Roman, Lamar Jackson and Sammy Watkins.
Check it out.
Q: What's it like being the longest-tenured player on the 49ers roster and seeing the entire roster turn over?
WARD: "That culture when I first got here, if you don't remember, I'll remind you. Guys were retiring. We had the whole (Colin) Kaepernick situation. I understand all of that stuff, and I don't have too much to say about that it, but all that hurt the team. It kind of separated guys. There was Aldon Smith and Kaepernick in the locker room, that whole situation. There was a lot of stuff going on.
"And the offense we ran, that's what Baltimore is running right now (with offensive coordinator Greg Roman). That's why I understand when you play Baltimore, you have to stop that run. And they built their defense up. So if guys ever start retiring on Baltimore's defense, their offense will fall apart. Because if you stop that run from Baltimore and force Lamar Jackson to throw the ball and their defense isn't up to par, you can beat them. Because they kind of have the same system the 49ers had back in 2011 and 2012. They use the tight ends heavy. They get most of the balls. I don't even know why Sammy Watkins went over the there. Obviously he's not intereted in catching a bunch of balls.
"Watkins just isn't talked about because he has been hurt, but I like Sammy. I feel like he's a No. 1 receiver. I feel like he's the reason (the Chiefs) won a Super Bowl. People are going to give it Tyreek Hill, they're going to give it Travis Kelce, but Sammy is aggressive, tall, big catch radius -- he's an athlete. And he took a paycut for two years. I was pissed. He went to the Ravens though. Cool. Give 'em hell over there."
