Unfinished Business : Rams Gave Up on Ellard, but in His First Season With Redskins, He Has Shown He Can Still Catch That Pass
Ram cornerback Todd Lyght has one major problem with watching game films of wide receiver Henry Ellard these days. Ellard is not wearing a Ram uniform.
“It amazes me how guys who leave this team have so much success elsewhere,” Lyght said. “It makes you wonder. . . .”
It makes you wonder if the Rams could have used a veteran receiver such as Ellard, who has caught 69 passes for 1,316 yards and six touchdowns this season, his first since signing with the Washington Redskins in the off-season.
Makes you wonder what the Rams were thinking when they gave up on Ellard, 33, their all-time leader in receptions with 593, yards receiving with 9,761 and total offense with 11,663 yards.
Makes you wonder, is Ellard the ex-Ram player of the year?
He is, based on a random and unscientific survey of his former teammates.
Ellard’s competition included New Orleans Saint quarterback Jim Everett, who was Fox TV analyst Terry Bradshaw’s comeback player of the year; Pittsburgh linebacker Kevin Greene and Steeler offensive lineman Duval Love, both former Rams headed for the Pro Bowl.
“Henry has had the best year out of that group, definitely,” said Ram cornerback Darryl Henley, who voted for Ellard for the Pro Bowl. “Henry burned this league up the first half of the season.”
The Rams made no real attempt to re-sign Ellard last April, even though he had led the team with 61 receptions for 945 yards in 1993. It appeared they had given up on an aging player, but now it appears they lost much more.
“After 11 years there, I thought I wasn’t wanted anymore,” Ellard said, explaining why he signed the Redskins’ two-year deal worth $1.8 million, only $50,000 a year more than he earned with the Rams.
Reunited with Redskin Coach Norv Turner, his former position coach with the Rams, Ellard returns to Anaheim Stadium on Saturday. He’s having one of the best seasons of his career, despite playing for a 2-13 team that has used three starting quarterbacks--veteran John Friesz and rookies Heath Shuler and Gus Frerotte.
“This year rivals the ones Henry had in 1988 and ‘89,” Turner said. “He went through a stretch of three games, when Heath first started, and he only caught seven balls for 100 yards. If we would have kept him on a normal pace, and Heath had been ready to play, Henry would have had 200 to 300 more yards receiving.”
Ram receiver Flipper Anderson scolded Pro Bowl voters last week for leaving Ellard off the team in favor of Michael Irvin and Sterling Sharpe.
“Henry had a better year than they did,” Anderson said. “Especially considering the circumstances he was in with the way the team was playing and the quarterback situation.”
Bradshaw also lobbied for Ellard, despite giving his comeback award to Everett, who struggled to get Ellard the ball in his final days as a Ram. Bradshaw did name Ellard his midseason league MVP, adding that he thought “it was a great story.”
Ellard could make it another great story Saturday--he needs 121 yards to set a Redskin record for most yards receiving in a season. He needs 99 for a career high and 84 to become the oldest player in league history to break the 1,400-yard mark.
Meanwhile, the players who have replaced him in the Ram lineup--rookie Isaac Bruce and veteran Jessie Hester--have combined for 61 catches, eight fewer than Ellard, and 850 yards, nearly 500 fewer than Ellard.
Ellard’s statistics with the Rams had decreased steadily since the 1988 season, when he caught a career-high 86 passes for 1,414 yards and 10 touchdowns.
His touchdown receptions dropped to eight, then four, then three and eventually two last season, staying in sync with Everett’s demise as the team’s starting quarterback.
“It was a tough situation with the offensive line, and Jim wasn’t getting the time to sit back and throw the ball,” Ellard said. “He was getting pounded. After a while, you can’t help but have trouble when people are running down your throat and hitting you. He got the bad end of the deal with everything that was going on.”
The Rams dealt Everett to the Saints for a 1995 seventh-round draft pick, but they didn’t offer Ellard any deal. Under the league’s new salary system, Ellard, then 32, didn’t have much to bargain with, or so the Rams thought.
“When the new system was implemented, I think (Ram) management didn’t know how it was going to affect the team’s future,” Henley said. “I heard stories ranging from, ‘We aren’t going to use any more older guys’ to ‘We’re going to use a couple older guys,’ and now it’s all younger guys.”
Ellard said he asked the Ram coaching staff at the end of the season if the team would re-sign him. Yes, he was told.
“But I was never approached by anyone (in the front office),” he said. “They sat back and let me shop around.”
He shopped in Denver, which was more interested in Tim Brown and eventually signed Anthony Miller and traded for Mike Pritchard. The New York Jets looked at Ellard, but re-signed Rob Moore.
“I think the Rams thought I would come back and negotiate with them after I shopped around,” Ellard said. “I was pretty upset (by the Rams’ lack of interest) because I did a decent job in my 11 years there. It bothered me a little bit.”
But if the Rams didn’t want him, Turner did. When the Redskins couldn’t come to contract terms with veteran receiver Art Monk, they signed Ellard. Monk later signed with the Jets.
Turner, who had worked with Ellard for eight seasons in Anaheim, wanted the veteran to help out with young receivers Desmond Howard and Tydus Winans. But after Ellard caught 10 passes for 197 yards against the New York Giants in Week 3, it was obvious the Redskins had a new go-to receiver.
“You have an advantage when you have a guy out there who you know, and understand what he’s capable of doing,” Turner said. “I don’t look at him as a 33-year-old receiver. He has kept his body in great shape, and he’s going to be able to play two or three more years.”
When Ellard left Rams Park last spring, he joked with reporters that he didn’t know where the visitors’ locker room was in Anaheim Stadium, despite having played there for more than a decade.
Saturday, he will find out, as the Rams play perhaps their final game in Anaheim.
“It’s going to be weird, walking into the visitors’ locker room there,” Ellard said. “I guess you can say it’s both exciting and interesting at the same time.”
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Life After the Rams
Wide receiver Henry Ellard, who went from the Rams to Washington via free agency last spring, is having one of his best NFL seasons. The numbers:
CAREER Year Rec. Yards Avg. TD 1983 16 268 16.8 0 1984 34 622 18.3 6 1985 54 811 15.0 5 1986 34 447 13.1 4 1987 51 799 15.7 3 1988 86 1,414 16.4 10 1989 70 1,382 19.7 8 1990 76 1,294 17.0 4 1991 64 1,052 16.4 3 1992 47 727 15.5 3 1993 61 945 15.5 2 1994 69 1,316 19.0 6 Totals 663 11,047 16.6 54
1994 WITH REDSKINS
Opponent Rec. Yards Avg. TD Seattle 7 105 15.0 0 New Orleans 3 72 24.0 2 NY Giants 10 197 19.7 1 Atlanta 6 162 27.0 1 Dallas 3 51 17.0 0 Philadelphia 2 43 21.5 0 Arizona 3 50 16.6 0 Indianapolis 6 108 18.0 0 Philadelphia 5 84 16.8 0 San Francisco 7 93 13.2 0 Dallas 0 0 0.0 0 NY Giants 4 81 20.2 0 Tampa Bay 1 19 19.0 0 Arizona 8 191 23.8 1 Tampa Bay 4 60 15.0 1
Sources: Rams and Redskins