Hines Ward will now represent the green and white. Per the New York Jets' official site, Ward is joining the team as one of four Bill Walsh coaching interns.
Ward, the Steelers' all-time leader in all major receiving categories, previously served as a coaching intern at Steelers' training camp in Latrobe in 2017. He also held an advisory role for the now-defunct Alliance of American Football (AAF) in 2018.
Also taking part in the Walsh minority coaching fellowship with Ward are former Jets receiver David Clowney IV, Stephen Bravo-Brown and Damon Reginald Wilson.
The fun storyline here, of course, is the fact that Ward joins another former Steeler, Le'Veon Bell, with the Jets. Following a tumultuous, well-documented contract negotiation with the Steelers, Bell signed a four-year, $52.5 million deal with the Jets in March. Although Ward and Bell never shared the field, Ward's work as a coaching intern did overlap with Bell's last active season with the Steelers (2017).
While Ward and Bell are the most high-profile names here, the Jets also have tackle Kelvin Beachum, who was drafted by the Steelers in 2012 and played in Pittsburgh from 2012 to 2015, and Steve McLendon, an undrafted free agent signing by the Steelers in 2009.
McLendon, interestingly enough, tried to recruit Bell to the Jets long before Bell actually put ink to paper in that deal.
"If anybody gets them on their team, they’re going to get a hell of a player," McLendon told the New York Daily News' Manish Mehta in December of 2018. "Just know that he’s going to bring the best out of so many people. Just imagine: He’d be the Jamal Adams on offense. Loud. Energetic. Confident … And he’s going to make plays.”
Along with Beachum and McLendon, Quadree Henderson will also make a run at the Jets' final 53-man roster this season. Henderson was signed with the Steelers as an undrafted free agent out of Pitt in 2018.
