The Importance of TJ Ward to the Broncos’ Pass Defense

When re-watching the Broncos-Patriots game, something in the Broncos pass coverage stands out. They were shadowing a pass catcher from the Broncos. Not just any pass catcher, but Rob Gronkowski. And the player they were using to do it wasn’t Aqib Talib, Chirs Harris, or Bradley Roby. It was TJ Ward. Ward is certainly a very good player in his own right, but he’s not close to the first name one thinks of when considering the Broncos’ pass defense. He has a reputation of more of an in-the-box, run stopping SS than a coverage player. Ward also isn’t a physically imposing player, and his listed 5’10”, 200 lb. frame looks diminutive when juxtaposed with Gronk’s 6’6″, 265 lb. body. Despite those perceived limitations, Ward was pretty effective against Gronkowski in the AFC Championship. The stats tell that story. Ward ended up going out with an injury about halfway through the 4th quarter. Before that, Gronk had 4 catches on 9 targets for 67 total yards, a number that includes a 31-yard gain with LB Danny Trevathan, not Ward, in coverage on Gronk. Afterwards, he had 4 catches on 6 targets for 77 yards, including the TD at the end of the game.

Rob Gronkowski is the Patriots’ top receiving threat. It just so happens that the Panthers also feature a dynamic receiving Tight End as their top pass catcher, Greg Olsen. Stopping Olsen will be very important if the Broncos want to be successful on defense in Super Bowl 50. Ward is part of the key to that. Hopefully for the Broncos, he’ll be healthy and will get to matchup against Olsen. The Broncos have other potential solutions for facing Olsen as well, but Ward appeared to be the most effective, even if he wasn’t pretty doing it. Looking at Gronkowski’s targets during the game can be instructive as to how the Broncos defended him, what worked, and what didn’t.

1-10-NE 20 (Q1, 15:00) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short left to 87-R.Gronkowski to NE 25 for 5 yards (59-D.Trevathan).

This is the very first play of the game. The Patriots actually appeared to put in a pretty heavy personnel package, with 304 lb. blocking TE Michael Williams, RB James White, and just two WRs. However, and this is something they did all game, they split everyone out and went with five-wide. The Broncos really aren’t in a great position to defend this, as they have their base 3-4 defense in. I didn’t count on every snap, but I’m this is one of the very few times the Broncos actually used their base personnel. They spent the vast majority of the game in Nickel or Dime packages. That’s also notable because this is one of the few plays where TJ Ward was used as a standard safety. This means that, while he’s on the same side, he’s not going to be covering Gronk on this play. As it is, Gronk gets underneath the zones from the LBs and picks up a short gain. It’s nice for the offense, but not a particularly impactful play either way.

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3-8-NE 35 (Q1, 13:17) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short middle to 87-R.Gronkowski [95-D.Wolfe].

This is just three plays later, and significant changes on the Broncos defense are clear. It is third and long, so the chances of a run are small, but even still the Broncos are in a Dime defense against 11 personnel from the Patriots. Another change pops on the screen immediately. TJ Ward is no longer a deep safety; he’s in man coverage on Gronk. Honestly, Ward doesn’t to a great job of coverage on this play. He lets Gronk get even with him quickly, and Gronk is past him before he enters his break. Still, the Broncos aren’t asking Ward to pretend he’s Aqib Talib. Ward’s approach to the play signifies his responsibility: don’t let Gronk beat him deep. Ward is drifting towards the outside at the snap, and continues that way afterward. This forces Gronkowski’s route to be an in-breaking route. It’s a dig on this play, and the fact that the Broncos have two deep safeties makes the route basically worthless. Brady is hit as thrown, and Darian Stewart almost breaks on the ball for an interception. Ward’s coverage put a clear constraint on Gronkowski on this play.

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3-3-NE 27 (Q1, 6:56) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short right to 87-R.Gronkowski.

Here we get to see a one-on-one matchup between Ward and Gronk. This happened a number of times throughout the game, and this play is a pretty good example of how they typically went down. There was a lot of contact. Ward was physical with Gronk at the line of scrimmage, which was important, and he maintained that physicality throughout the game. On this play, Gronk calls for a flag (he didn’t get one) and Ward probably deserves to get one. At the same time, the pass was borderline uncatchable. Defenders will get away with some of these penalties, and they’re probably more likely to get away with it against physically imposing players. That’s what Gronk is. That’s what Greg Olsen is. It’s easy to overdo it, but on the whole Ward being physical against the big TE in this game worked well.

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2-10-NE 24 (Q2, 13:36) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass deep right to 87-R.Gronkowski to NE 43 for 19 yards (20-J.Bush; 43-T.Ward).

At the beginning of this play, Ward shows versatility, acting as a LB in the box against the run threat. This was another important aspect Ward added for the Broncos, as it allowed them to go into their dime defense. The Panthers don’t spread it out like the Patriots do, so it might not be something the Broncos break out often, but it could certainly be of situational importance. However, in this scenario, Ward walking up in the box like that makes the Broncos vulnerable defensively. Ward is unable to drop back quickly enough, and winds up a step behind Gronkowski when Gronk comes out of his break. Because there was no underneath zone from a linebacker, Gronk has a lot of space to go to and picks up a nice gain.

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1-10-NE 33 (Q3, 13:15) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short right to 87-R.Gronkowski (59-D.Trevathan).

Because of the shift on this play, Ward ends up switching responsibilities and covering Williams, but he (towards the top of the screen at the snap, with the white sleeves) was originally designed to cover Gronk. Trevathan, the player in coverage, does a very good job to knock the ball away.

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2-10-NE 33 (Q3, 13:11) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short middle to 87-R.Gronkowski pushed ob at DEN 36 for 31 yards (21-A.Talib).

It’s the beginning of the second half, and the Broncos tried to go back to their base defense (yes, that’s Von Miller lined up against Michael Williams at the top of the screen). It’s not 100% clear because none of the angles available showed it, but it’s pretty obvious Williams split out wide from a position that was tight to the line of scrimmage, and the Broncos rotated by having Miller follow him and walking Ward further back into the deep safety spot. Because Ward started as the lone defender out wide to that side, he’s over the numbers, which is a lot wider than you’d normally see a safety play in Cover 2. This gives New England space to the middle to work, and they work it by exploiting the mismatch of Trevathan on Gronkowski. Danny did alright earlier in the game with underneath stuff, but he is clearly not capable of keeping up with such a dominant TE for long, and Gronk beats him on the dig here, picking up a big chunk of yards. The Patriots had to scheme Ward out of the play to get this matchup.

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1-10-NE 16 (Q3, 1:24) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short middle to 87-R.Gronkowski pushed ob at NE 28 for 12 yards (25-C.Harris).

Ward is playing off here, so he doesn’t cover Gronkowski, who is running a drag and picks up a decent chunk. The result is a bit different from the first play of the game, with a nice gain here. A rub route held LB Brandon Marshall up, which allowed Gronk to pick up the yardage after the catch. From the plays so far, it may not seem like Ward covered Gronk a whole lot. The real reason is that this is a very incomplete picture of the Patriots’ passing game. Including plays negated by penalty, the Patriots dropped back to pass 64 times in this game. Ward and Gronk were on the field at the same time for 36 pass plays before Ward got injured. Of those plays, he was shaded over Gronk in 29 of them, and was the primary defenders (this got a bit muggy considering zone defenses) about 20 times. You’re not seeing Ward defend Gronk a whole lot on these plays because generally the Broncos (with a lot of credit to Ward) did a good job of making Brady look elsewhere (until Ward went out, at least).

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1-10-DEN 44 (Q4, 8:23) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete deep right to 87-R.Gronkowski. DEN-43-T.Ward was injured during the play. His return is Questionable.

This is the play where Ward got injured, you can see Edelman collide with him and Ward limping after the play. Gronk is running a curl and is covered well (not by Ward). Brady is able to extend the play, but throws off balance and misses an improvising Gronkowski.

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1-10-NE 44 (Q4, 3:55) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass deep middle to 87-R.Gronkowski to DEN 28 for 28 yards (33-S.Keo) [94-D.Ware].

After the Ward injury, the Broncos were obviously forced to do different things to cover Gronk, which didn’t work so well. Here, Trevathan is in coverage and fails miserably when trying to carry Gronk to the seam. Gronk gets separation easily and picks up a big gain. Ward didn’t do a great job on Gronk, but he would have been able to avoid getting completely blown by, at the very least.

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1-10-DEN 28 (Q4, 3:14) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short right to 87-R.Gronkowski to DEN 23 for 5 yards (25-C.Harris).

The thing that caught my eye after Ward went out was that the Broncos started using Chris Harris in the way they were using Ward. Harris seemed to be the guy they wanted to match up against Gronk. The 2nd team All-Pro is almost the exact same listed size as Ward, which I guess makes sense. Here, the Broncos are playing off coverage and the Pats use that to pick up free yards on a curl. Harris does good to break on the ball and prevent yards after the catch.

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4-6-DEN 14 (Q4, 2:25) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short middle to 87-R.Gronkowski (21-A.Talib).

The Patriots’ play design on fourth down was uncessful here, and Brady gets pressured, so he heaves up a prayer to Gronk. In this crucial moment, the Broncos actually chose to used Aqib Talib to lock down Gronk.

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3-10-50 (Q4, 1:39) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass incomplete short right to 87-R.Gronkowski [94-D.Ware].

Once again we see Harris covering Gronk. He brings the same element of physicality that Ward did. Gronk goes to meet Harris and engages him as he’s about to break. Harris doesn’t just give way, but instead gives a shove back to Gronk that knocks the big man off balance. This isn’t a penalty and shouldn’t be one because Gronk was the person to initiate contact.

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4-10-50 (Q4, 1:34) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass deep middle to 87-R.Gronkowski to DEN 10 for 40 yards (20-J.Bush; 25-C.Harris).

With Ward out, the Patriots found a weakness at the seam. Here, Gronk beats Harris and gets position. However, the real culprit is S Josh Bush. Bush played the majority of the game (when the Broncos went dime, which they did a lot of, they used Ward, Talib, Harris, Bush, Stewart, and Roby as their DBs), and he did not get enough depth on this play.As a deep safety, he should in no circumstances allow Gronk to get over top of him, but that’s exactly what happened on this play. The play also happened to keep the Patriots’ sliver of a hope alive, as the situation was 4th and 10.

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4-4-DEN 4 (Q4, :17) (Shotgun) 12-T.Brady pass short middle to 87-R.Gronkowski for 4 yards, TOUCHDOWN [94-D.Ware].

Sometimes, incredible players make incredible plays. This is one of those times. Harris probably believed he’d forced Gronk far enough back into the end zone that he wouldn’t be able to stay in bounds. Gronk force his way into the play, and gave his team a chance by catching this pass for a TD. He’s indefensible sometimes. While Olsen isn’t quite as good as Gronk, he has some amazing play ability in him as well.

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Watching how Denver matched up against Rob Gronkowski shows a number of things. First, it shows that TJ Ward was a big part of Denver’s game plan, and I would consider his coverage of Gronk while he was in the game very successful. Ward brought physicality and helped minimize the impact of the Patriots’ best offensive weapon. When Ward went out of the game, the Broncos struggled to cover Gronkowski, and those struggles almost allowed the Patriots to tie the game back up. With the Panthers’ best offensive weapon also being their TE, this study of Gronkowski can provide a few points that can translate over. First, it’s clear that the Broncos should not want to put Danny Trevathan on Olsen any more than they have to. He allowed two of the biggest plays Gronk had. Secondly, I think Ward proved he can effectively limit a TE. However, outside of injury, I do have a concer about whether or not Ward will be able to do as well in Super Bowl 50 as he did in the AFCCG. Against the Patriots, the Broncos used mainly nickel and dime looks to counter almost exclusively 4- and 5-wide sets from the Patriots. The Patriots did not have a running threat in the game. The Panthers are vastly different, with not only a very good running back in Jonathan Stewart, but with Cam Newton, who often plays like he’s a running back. This means that the Broncos might have to resort to heavier personnel, which could limit the time Ward is able to put in covering Olsen.

Regardless, it should be an interesting matchup to watch develop over the course of the game.