2007 Outlook

The 31-year old wide receiver now enters his 10th NFL season and his age appears to be starting to catch up to him. After never missing a game in his first seven seasons, he was out for one week in 2005 and missed two games last year while playing hurt in others. Ward injured his knee in week 13 which included a broken bone which required arthroscopic surgery. He ended the year with the exact same yardage as in 2005 - 975 yards. Notable too is that his touchdown totals plummeted from 11 to only six last year which in part reflected the struggles of Ben Roethlisberger but also the play of Nate Washington and the rookie Santonio Holmes.

Ward has never been that big on yardage and his career high came in 2002 when he had 1329 yards on 112 catches but he's been closer to the 1000 yard mark for each of the last four years. His role as the touchdown guy is what propped up his fantasy value and now with other weapons for Roethlisberger, Ward does not need to provide such a high percentage of all catches for the Steelers to win a game. As a possession receiver and devastating blocker downfield, it doesn't really matter if Ward has lost a step or not - that is not so much his role anyway. But the erosion of his touchdowns is troubling in fantasy terms and the improvement that Washington and Holmes have made to the wideout crew should keep Ward to moderate numbers in most games. He's almost a guaranteed lock to catch four passes for 50 yards every week and he'll do a bit better in many others, but he only had two 100 yard games last year. He's a safe draft pick but not one that will be a difference maker for your fantasy team.

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