Derrick Ward's Profile at Pro-Football-Reference

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A Different Kind of Back

Derrick LaRon Ward has had a busy off-season.  He inked himself a nice free agent contract with Tampa Bay, and as a probable result of that, is now dating one of the curvy Kardashian sisters; Khloe.  Ward is no dummy, he grabbed a cool and easy to catch C-list celebrity, from a renown once you go running back you never go back family.  We are hoping they have a kid - can you say the next Lawrence Taylor?  They should make sure to call it Laron, and keep her namesake, LaRon Kardasian; we're signing the kid before the umbilical cord is cut.  Ward, like fellow RB Reggie Bush, is obviously a big fan of thick Persian booty.  Kardashian sisters Kim and Khloe bring plenty of "back" to the table, and there ain't a damn thing wrong with it.

Fellas, skinny is out, believe us on that one.  Remember when Lindsey Lohan just turned 18, and her boobs grew a couple sizes overnight?  Well now, as she juggles being a lesbian with DJ Ronson and gobbling Ryan Seacrest's two inch unit, she looks more like Jack's Beanstalk.

They are flashing the number of times they are going to split and get back together... in one night.  And to the right, we have Lindsay on a break from her upcoming movie being produced by Vivid Entertainment.

Courtney Love is LiLo's American Idol.

Anyway, not a bad year for a one time practice squad guy that was picked in the last round of the 2004 draft, 20 picks shy of Mr. Irrelevant status.

His Game

He has good size at 5'11" and 228 pounds.  He has average speed and vision, and doesn't do anything fancy after the first cut.  He is getting better at doing more after first contact, but still has a ways to go.  His six career TDs have all been within the red-zone.  That is not us paying a compliment to his red-zone prowess, but more taking a shot at the fact that he doesn't seem to be a threat to break off a big momentum-changing long run.  He ran behind one of the best run blocking offensive lines in the league in 2008, and was able to average 5.6 YPC which was greater than the Giants average of 5.0 YPC.

Ward has historically been much more effective on turf as opposed to grass.  The Giants played 11 games total on turf (Giants Stadium is turf) and Ward will be playing all of his home games on grass in Tampa Bay.

2009 Fantasy Outlook

If you look back at Tampa Bay's RB production history, you will find at least one common trend - no matter the coach or scheme being employed, they don't employ featured backs.  They practically invented the whole RBBC issue that plagues fantasy football these days... think Dunn and Alstott circa the middle to late 90's.  Over the past 13 seasons, Tampa has produced three 1,000+ yard RBs (Williams in 2005, Dunn in 2000 and 1998).  Ward was signed to come in and be Tampa's primary RB, but will share some of the load with Earnest Graham and team gimp, Cadillac Williams.  Ward is a more talented pass catcher than either Williams or Graham, and will be in on most third downs in addition to shouldering much of the regular load.

Cadillac gets injured so often that he's now coming close to Rob Johnson punchline status, Warrick Dunn is no longer on the team (786 yards last season), and Graham is coming off a season ending injury and is more of a FB to begin with.  Derrick has more opportunity than most of the strippers in Tampa.  Brandon Jacobs bogarted all of the goal-line carries in NY, but Ward is a legit candidate for those honors this year.  He may have to share a few with Graham, though.

This may be the player that really shows us that Tampa is the Bermuda triangle of RB's.  Ever since Errict Rhett misplayed his hand after a couple solid seasons back in 1996, the team has had some really mediocre output from the position.