Jimmie Ward is Playing Like an All Pro Nickelback

Jimmie Ward is the Rodney Dangerfield of the 49ers defense.

He gets no respect. He plays at an elite level every week and no one seems to talk about him because he's on a team full of stars.

But Ward is a star, too. Last season, he played safety and was ranked the 96th-best player in the NFL by his peers. This season, he lost his starting job at free safety when he got injured -- something that's not supposed to happen. Then he begrudgingly moved to nickelback midseason. And in his first game back by from a broken hand, he got torched by Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs.

Since that game, the 49ers haven't lost, and Ward is a big reason for that. During this seven-game winning streak, Ward has given up just 235 receiving yards, zero touchdown catches and a passer rating of 61.1 while intercepting two passes and forcing one fumble. Suddenly, he has become a lock-down nickelback AND a legitimate a playmaker for the first time in his career.

"Everyone knows how good of a safety he is," head coach Kyle Shanahan said. "That's why he more than deserved to be one of the top 100 players in the league last year. Now we're able to use his versatility at nickel when we really need it. And I personally think it puts him in position to have more opportunities to make plays. He's the best down there. I thought his best game of the year was versus Tampa. He was all over the place and he continues to do it. I can't say enough good things about Jimmie. He's been one of our best players this year."

Ward is one of the few players in the NFL who's top notch at two positions, and he'll be a free agent this offseason, which means he might be too expensive for the 49ers to re-sign.

Enjoy him while he's here.