Jim Ward

I can't explain how awesome it is for Ward to be hired on as a scout. First of all he was my DC at Clairton, secondly his wife was my my middle school teacher. I'm on cloud n9ne. It's like one of us made it. It's a Mon Valley thing. We live vicariously through others at times. Hopefully Ward can get T. Boyd to the Steelers.

 

Thats a great feeling. I remember when a HS buddy told me he was doing some scouting for the steelers, mind you this was the lowest of the lows, lol, but it still felt amazing to have that connection. I have no idea how they do it now, but essentially we was going to smaller D1 schools and giving reports on any possible prospects. Long before the internet, it was just a compilation of names, stats, and first impressions.

 

Nice hearing this.

 

good hire. omar, u da man.

 

Who? Seriously, give some background on Ward for us outside of the Pittsburgh area.

 

He was the Eagles Midwest scout. Very much an analytics guy. So he'll be scouting B10, MAC, and othe schools that fall in that range.

 

zack crockett the former raider fullback and 14 year scout for them has been hire as well.

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/05/r...-fb-veteran-nfl-scout-zack-crockett-to-staff/


here is a little on the hiring of jim ward as well.

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/05/report-steelers-to-hire-eagles-scout-jim-ward/

 

Hmmm I wonder who suggested them hiring him? Maybe the guy on the left?! Just a hunch...

 

It's pretty cool knowing people personally having success at that level that we went to school with. I attended middle school, high school and graduated with Todd Haley. Too bad he and Ben butted heads as I still think he was the best OC the Steelers had in the past decade.

 

Yeah it's cool..... I agree...I played ball with a Wr who is a two time winning SB champion.

 

Will be nice to get some Steelers insider info on this board. I usually just have to call Schefty.

 

I agree. I know him many years, however, I doubt I can pull anything significant from him. I used to be able to get WPIAL-> Recruiting news 10+ years ago because of my Mon Valley connections, but this is different. I'm not gonna bang on my MS teachers DM to get draft Intel.

 

Come on man do it for us. I want to know if Kenny Pickett really shotguns 3 beers every halftime break!

 

I'd say he crushes 3 a time with a beer bong

 

jarrod highberger added as a scout.

https://steelersdepot.com/2023/05/steelers-hiring-jarrod-highberger-in-scouting-role/

 

Seems the Steelers are adding more regional scouts to their scouting department. With any luck, this means more expansion into West of the Mississippi. Heavily leaned into the East of the River since Tomlin got here; David DeCastro and JuJu Smith Schuster the only real players of note there.


This all said, scouting is much, much more than just measuring athletic traits. It is about the person who wears the helmet. Knowing them as a person and what they are willing to not just do but persevere through is more important than any measurable could ever record. So long as that person can weather any storm life throws at it, even those of "limited athleticism" have not just found NFL homes but have also had good careers.

 

The U S population is heavily east of the river and they do have scouts covering California Oregon Washington etc

There wasn’t a lot missing

 

With Lincoln Riley really turning around USC in a hurry, I'd imagine that we'll be snagging talent from there soon enough. Plus with them going to the B10 very soon, it'll be relatively easy to scout them and UCLA with the Midwestern Scout: Ward.

 

Fair enough.


All I am stating is that Pittsburgh often doesn't travel out west enough. Furthermore, the new area scouts being brought in could potentially aid in searching for more talent over there. That said, I do understand why the Steelers prefer Conferences like the B1G and SEC over the PAC 12.