49ers break with tradition to spend big bucks on cornerback Charvarius Ward
Once targeted by the 49ers on a Super Bowl-deciding play, cornerback Charvarius Ward agreed to join them on a lucrative contract in free agency Monday night.
Precisely 100 seconds remained in Super Bowl LIV when wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders lined up for one of the most infamous plays in 49ers history. Opposite him was Charvarius Ward, an unheralded cornerback completing his first full season as a Kansas City Chiefs starter.
Sanders burst off the line of scrimmage, cut inside past Ward, raced by cornerback Rashad Fenton, then got free as Jimmy Garoppolo heaved a potential, championship-winning touchdown pass.
That overthrown ball infamously fell incomplete. The 49ers lost the Lombardi Trophy to the Chiefs, 31-20.
Fast forward 25 months later to Monday night: Ward again was targeted by the 49ers, who agreed to a lucrative contract with him on the opening day of free agency talks.
Ward agreed to a three-year, $42 million deal with $26.7 million guaranteed, according to his agency, Universal Sports Management. Once the league year opens Wednesday and makes the deal official, it’ll be the biggest contract for a 49ers cornerback (factoring in inflation) since Richard Sherman signed on in 2018 for a three-year deal that paid out $10 million annually.
With Ward’s deal averaging $14 million per year — as first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter — it checks in below two bigger deals brokered earlier Monday: J.C. Jackson (Chargers; five years, $82.5 million) and Carlton Davis (Bucs; three years, $45 million), according to multiple reports.
That still-costly deal could indicate the 49ers plan to clear salary cap room, whether by extending high-priced veterans or by trading (or releasing) quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo ($24 million salary in 2022).
That’s also quite a jackpot for a cornerback who, four years ago, went undrafted out of Middle Tennessee State University, where he was teammates with wide receiver Richie James Jr., a 2018 seventh-round pick by the 49ers (and current free agent).
James, in fact, beat Ward for a last-minute, game-winning touchdown catch in the pair’s pro debut, the 2018 preseason opener.
Ward entered the NFL by signing for $5,000 guaranteed with the Dallas Cowboys, who traded him just before kickoff of their 2018 preseason finale. The 6-foot-1 cornerback was sent to the Chiefs for guard Parker Ehringer, a free agent seeking his eighth team in five years.
“I was shocked. I started crying at first,” Ward recalled to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a few days prior to the Super Bowl against the 49ers. “I started crying because I didn’t know if I was going to make the team in Kansas City. Preseason was over and training camp was over. I was wondering. I didn’t know.”
He made the team. He made the starting lineup. He made himself into a multi-millionaire, with his 26th birthday still ahead of him on May 16.
Ward made a career-high $3.4 million last season on a one-year tender as a Chiefs’ restricted free agent. In 43 starts and 56 games, Ward has totaled just four interceptions. In his rookie finale in 2018, he made a potential AFC Championship-clinching interception against Tom Brady, only to have it nullified by an offside penalty from Dee Ford, who was traded two months later to the 49ers.
Last season, Ward was the 14th-most targeted cornerback in the NFL (17.9 percent of his coverage snaps) and he ranked 16th in Pro Football Focus’ ratings.
He’s a late bloomer, so to speak.
“I’m just a humble young man,” Ward told Chiefs.com prior to their Super Bowl vs. the 49ers. “I’m quiet and laid back. But I try to help people the best way I can. I’ve got a lot of talent in the NFL and I’m going to be a great player one day.”
Ward grew up 110 miles north of New Orleans in McComb, Mississippi (population: 12,790). He joined his high school team his senior year, then spent two years at Hinds (Mississippi) Community College before transferring to Middle Tennessee State. He was not invited to the ensuing NFL scouting combine.
“To see where he came from to where he is now is amazing,” Tanya Ward, his mother, told the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal in January 2020. “He wasn’t one of those kids who had played football his entire life. People always say ‘I know you’re proud of him’ and I am, but football is just a bonus.
“I’m proud of the kid because he grew up in the ghetto, not having a lot but he would always try to do right,” Tanya Ward added. “He did well in school, never got in trouble and then football came later on in his life. Once he got in his head that he wanted to play football, he let nothing stop him from playing. It’s honestly amazing.”
Starting opposite Ward will likely be Emmanuel Moseley, who paired late last season with rookie Ambry Thomas, a third-round draft pick who came on strong late in the year.
The 49ers need more depth, and re-signing one of their own free agents still seems possible, just not in Ward’s price range.
Among the 49ers’ 20 unrestricted free agents are cornerbacks Jason Verrett, K’Waun Williams and Josh Norman.
Gaining an elite starting cornerback was a necessity, which meant redirecting funds away from the 49ers’ top free agents, and that resulted in the departures of guard Laken Tomlinson (New York Jets) and defensive tackle D.J. Jones (Denver Broncos).
More moves are coming, but likely not at the expense it cost to sign Ward, which the 49ers did over older free agents such as Stephon Gilmore, Joe Haden, Kyle Fuller, Chris Harris and Patrick Peterson.
It also didn’t come at the sticker price of an infamous 49ers cornerback signing in 2007: Nate Clements, who was released four seasons into his eight-year, $80 million deal.