Niners Nation
Mooney Ward spoke with Mike Silver and was refreshingly honest about not receiving an extension from the 49ers, and how that affected him in 2024
The Athletic’s Mike Silver caught up with former San Francisco 49ers cornerback Charvarius Ward, who is now with the Indianapolis Colts.
Ward was tremendous during his time with the Niners. He was recognized as one of the best corners during his tenure in the Bay Area and earned an All-Pro nod during the 2023 Super Bowl run.
Ward told Silver, “I kind of got my joy back, my happiness back, my smile back, and everything like that. I’ve got a lot of optimism right now.” That should make anybody smile after knowing the traumatic events Mooney went through last season with his family.
Ward was brutally honest with Silver, telling him, “Once I came back, every game after that, I was just like, ‘I don’t give a f**k what happens. I don’t care if I win this rep; I don’t care if I lose this rep.’ I was there physically, but mentally, I was somewhere off the grid, off the globe.”
How could you blame Ward? The fact that he showed up to work was shocking. Ward was asked to play a vicious, violent sport and do so after he lost his daughter, who had just celebrated her second birthday. The fact that Ward came back at all reveals the kind of character he has and the type of man and teammate Mooney is.
Ward’s transparency was refreshing. He told Silver, “Even before everything happened with my baby, I really wasn’t super motivated.” It made sense at the time for the 49ers to extend Ward. We discussed the possibility of Mooney getting extended during the offseason after the Niners' Super Bowl.
The 49ers were trying to keep the band together for one final run, and Mooney was coming off a career year, had given you two elite seasons at corner, was 28, and an extension would have created more money to pay for an inevitable Brandon Aiyuk extension.
However, the 49ers made it clear to Ward that he was going to play out the final year of his deal. That did not sit well with Charvarius.
He told Silver, “Because after the year I had in ‘23, I wanted a contract extension — because I wanted to stay — and I knew I wasn’t getting a contract offer. They came to me and kind of told me what it was, ‘cause they had (other) people to pay. So it kind of had me in my feelings a little bit. I just never made it public.
I was hurt when I realized I wasn’t getting a contract extension or even an offer for an extension. So, I wasn’t motivated; like, from OTAs all the way through camp, I was kind of pissed off. I knew when the season started it was a wrap for me in the Bay.”
The 49ers were the kings of the NFC....
