Steelers receiver Hines Ward throws out the first pitch Friday before the Pirates-Braves game in Orlando. Ward threw the pitch to Chipper Jones, who is a Steelers fan. The Pirates lost, 5-4, in 10 innings.
By Scott Brown
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
His role should increase next season, assuming new offensive coordinator Bruce Arians incorporates four-wide receiver sets into the Steelers' offense. Yet, Hines Ward wants it to decrease in one sense.
"Last year, I found myself trying to speak on the run, make sure when we'd break the huddle that (other wide receivers) were running the right routes," Ward said last week during a break from ESPN The Weekend festivities at Walt Disney World. "You're breaking the huddle and it's like, 'Hey, you've got a curl route. Watch that safety.' I found myself doing that more than I had to (in the past)."
The maturation of young wide receivers Santonio Holmes and Nate Washington could take some of that burden off Ward. The Steelers also may look to upgrade the position through the NFL draft or free agency.
Ward also indicated he needs to relieve some of it himself by playing a little less big brother.
"Going into my 10th year, I know the game and know what they're going through, so I try to overcompensate too much," Ward said, "because even though they know it, I just like to double-check to make sure they do know it."
The trick for Ward, who said he will start working out with his teammates in a couple of weeks, may be finding that balance between leading and literally showing the way.
Ward has designs on another productive if not Pro Bowl season. If Ward, who turns 31 on Thursday, stays healthy, he should at least move to the top of the Steelers' career receiving yardage list.
The four-time Pro Bowler needs just 719 receiving yards to pass Pro Football Hall of Famer John Stallworth in that category.
Ward had 975 yards in 2006, despite enduring a trying season that followed one in which he won Super Bowl MVP honors.
Idled for much of training camp with a hamstring pull, Ward got off to a slow start in 2006.
He also missed two games near the end of the season following arthroscopic knee surgery, and, for the second consecutive season, he came up just 25 yards short of the benchmark (1,000 yards) for premier NFL wide receivers.
Earlier in his career that may have bothered him, said Ward, who has always been sensitive to the fact that a number of teams overlooked him coming out of the University of Georgia.
But Ward, one of the best blocking wide receivers in the NFL, said a significant part of his development has been learning not to get consumed by numbers or tie his value as a player to them.
"I used to get caught up in stats, because I thought that's what made players, that's what gave you that name recognition," said Ward, a former third-round draft pick who had 1,000-yard receiving seasons from 2001-04. "I was so much trying to appease (media) when the only thing I had to do was appease my teammates and have respect from my peers around the league. I don't get caught up in numbers like I used to. Yes, I haven't had 1,000 yards (receiving) the last two years, but I don't think I'm getting any worse. I think I've gotten better."
Perhaps the one area he needs to improve upon is not worrying so much about the receivers he has helped nurture.
"This year, I'm going to do less of that and just get back to playing football and just watching those guys grow into their own," Ward said. "That's kind of one of my personal goals this year is to sit back and teach those guys as much as I can and just watch them go out and flourish as wide receivers."
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Ward by the numbers
1 - Hines Ward's rank among Steelers' all-time receptions leaders.
16 - Career 100-yard receiving games.
58 - Career touchdown receptions (all-time Steelers leader John Stallworth has 63).
92 - Pick of the 1998 NFL Draft with which Steelers selected Ward.
648 - Career receptions.
8,005 - Career receiving yards.
Scott Brown can be reached at sbrown@tribweb.com or 412-481-5432.
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