The San Francisco 49ers were supposed to start Jimmie Ward and Eric Reid at safety throughout the duration of 2017.
That was the idea, of course, under first-year defensive coordinator Robert Saleh and his Cover 3 scheme. Reid was to drop down from his free safety position to strong safety, letting Ward patrol the last line of defense as a single-high defensive back.
But Saleh’s plans were thrown out the window for much of the season, notably when Reid suffered a knee injury in Week 3 against the Seattle Seahawks. And the issue was compounded even further when Ward was lost for the season with a broken forearm in Week 8.