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Eagles' Greg Ward Jr. finally gets his chance to soar

shalise manza young
Columnist

On Sunday, Greg Ward Jr. caught the game-winning touchdown for the Philadelphia Eagles against Washington with 26 seconds to play.

It was the final catch of a seven-reception, 61-yard game from Ward, the first touchdown and the first start of his NFL career.

If you don’t follow the Eagles or Houston Cougars football, Ward might seem like some kind of overnight success.

But he’s far from it.

16 transactions

Eagles receiver Greg Ward pulls in the game-winning touchdown against Washington on Sunday. (AP/Alex Brandon)
Eagles receiver Greg Ward pulls in the game-winning touchdown against Washington on Sunday. (AP/Alex Brandon)

Ward was a quarterback at Houston, and a pretty good one: he led the Cougars to a 38-24 upset of Florida State in the 2015 Peach Bowl, which was the capper to a 13-1 season and American Athletic Conference championship-winning season.

Ward was the offensive player of the game for the Peach Bowl, and was Houston’s starter his senior season as well, in 2016, when the Cougars upset No. 3 Louisville — quarterbacked by Lamar Jackson.

In high school, he led John Tyler High to an incredible come-from-behind win over Whitehouse High. The opposing quarterback in that game? One Patrick Mahomes:

But Ward wasn’t drafted, and signed with the Eagles as an undrafted rookie on May 11, 2017. In the time since, he’s endured 16 transactions with the team, cut from the roster out of training camp in 2017, ‘18 and ‘19, then signed to the practice squad.

Earlier this year, he tried the AAF. That, obviously, didn’t last long.

This year, finally, on September 21, he was promoted to the 53-man roster, played in Philadelphia’s Week 3 loss to the Detroit Lions — a whopping two offensive snaps — and then was cut and re-signed to the practice squad.

On November 23, he was promoted to the 53-man again, and now he’s really gotten to play: six catches and 36 snaps against the Seahawks in Week 12, one catch and 29 snaps against the Dolphins in Week 13, four catches and 76 snaps last week against the Giants.

Then came Sunday, when he started and played 58 snaps, or 75 percent of the Eagles’ offensive snaps. Carson Wentz looked Ward’s way four times on the game-winning touchdown drive, including, of course, on the biggest play of all.

Some fans are questioning why general manager Howie Roseman and the Eagles coaching staff didn’t make the move to Ward sooner, but he’s here now.

‘I wasn’t going to quit’

During the game, Ward was talking to Washington’s Josh Norman. Norman is known around the NFL for his trash talk, but the receiver and cornerback weren’t trading verbal jabs; Ward was telling Norman how “crazy” it was that he was playing against the Pro Bowler.

Not every player has what it takes to endure being on the practice squad for over two seasons; not every player gets the chance to stick with one team’s practice squad for as long as Ward did.

But Ward said after the game that he never lost faith in himself.

“You’ve got to look down the road,’’ he said, via the Philadelphia Inquirer. “You can’t just look at how things are right now. You’ve got to keep working and keep praying and keep your head down and stay with it. I wasn’t going to quit until I did it.’’

Wentz said the first read on the play was tight end Zach Ertz, but Ertz was well-covered. So he reset and found Ward.

“I can’t say enough good things about Greg,’” Wentz said. “For him to keep coming up big late in the game like that, they went to man coverage and he just kept beating his guy. He was part of the progression and just kept making plays. And then, to go up and get that ball in the end zone like that, that was sweet.”

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