As a rookie, Jihad Ward played in all 16 regular season games for the Oakland Raiders.
He made 13 starts, and finished his first season in Silver and Black with 31 total tackles. He carried that positive momentum into his first NFL offseason, and by all accounts the versatile defensive end was putting together a strong Offseason Workout Program until an injury sidelined him for the duration of training camp.
One could wonder if that lull would stop the positive momentum Ward built up over the past several months, but when asked, Ward responded – pretty emphatically in fact.