NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Titans want Cam Ward to be more careful with his words.
In the aftermath of Tennessee’s shutout loss last week to Houston, the No. 1 pick’s remarks about the offense being “ass” so far this season went viral. On Wednesday, coach Brian Callahan said Ward is still “growing up” to the spotlight and learning how much weight his words carry.
“Even though he follows up the commentary with a lot of the right things, it’s the one-liner that gets taken [and run with],” Callahan said, in part. “He’s learning how to deal with [the media] and how to understand how to have those conversations and still maintain the image that he wants to maintain as a starting quarterback.”
I think it’s Callahan’s remarks that are what’s wrong with the Titans.
No. 1 overall pick Cam Ward has yet to win an NFL game, and he’s not being quiet about his and the team’s early-season performance. (Photo by Perry Knotts/Getty Images)
This is a team in crisis. A team that’s had no answers for years. A laughingstock in the NFL. Without a win since last November, Tennessee somehow reached a new low last week — a four-score, shutout loss at the hands of another winless team. So the last thing the Titans should be worried about are public platitudes coming from their quarterback’s mouth. Ward’s brutal honesty should instead be commended. That’s the mentality that this franchise has desperately needed.
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And I think that’s the mentality that will help Ward survive this situation. The Titans won’t break Cam Ward.
We’ve seen this script end badly for young quarterbacks before. With a franchise that has bad coaching, lackluster weapons and an offensive line that can’t pass protect around them, many promising passers lose their confidence. They break eventually, never able to recover. The lucky ones are able to rebound only after they’ve left the team that drafted them for one that can build them back up.
“More organizations fail the quarterback than the quarterback failing the organization,” Titans president of football operations Chad Brinker told me before the season. “We understand that.”
But Ward’s ethos suggests a different fate, that he’ll somehow be a good quarterback in time, even if the Titans never figure it out around him.
It starts with his supreme belief in himself and in those around him.
How he’d jaw back and forth in practice with Titans edge Jeffery Simmons, one of football’s best defensive players, before he’d played a professional game. How he told the world in training camp that Tennessee would have a top-10 offense this season, something no rational observer of this team would’ve said with a straight face.
“For a kid that really wasn’t a highly recruited kid, he had a lot of opportunities in life to have that belief dented in a way. You can’t dent it. I mean, you just can’t,” Shannon Dawson, Ward’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Miami, told me last month. “[The Titans] could go 0-16, and he’s still going to play with the same confidence every week, like they’re 16-0. … It’s not going to be all perfect, but he’s going to compete perfectly.”
Despite flashes, Ward has struggled. His footwork and getting through his progressions are a work in progress. He hasn’t been particularly accurate. He has a tendency to hold the ball too long at times, waiting for plays to develop.
Of the 33 qualified quarterbacks, the No. 1 pick ranks last in completion rate (51.2%) and yards per attempt (4.9), second to last in passer rating (63.9), and third to last in completion rate over expected and EPA per dropback, according to Next Gen Stats. He’s thrown for just 614 yards and two touchdowns with two interceptions in four games.
But the Titans aren’t doing much to help him.
Ward’s supposed No. 1 receiver, Calvin Ridley, has had dropping issues and is averaging just 35.3 yards per game, which would mark a career low. Ward has been sacked 17 times, most in the NFL. He’s faced 66 pressures, third most, and a 44.0% pressure rate, also third most. His defense doesn’t have a pass rush (Tennessee’s four sacks is tied for second to last) and has routine second-half breakdowns.
Ward’s postgame remarks on Sunday were an honest and accurate assessment of how unacceptable it all is. Even Callahan could see where Ward was coming from.
“I think what everyone is learning about Cam is that he cares a tremendous amount. It’s really important to him,” Callahan said Monday. “He wants to win football games. He wants to deliver winning performances for our organization, for our fans. That’s what he cares about. There’s nothing else that he has any interest in other than playing football and trying to play football at a high level.
“He wears his emotions a little bit out there, and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. At the end of the day, I know where it’s coming from, and I know why he’s the way he is in those moments. [It’s] because he wants nothing more than to play well and win.”
Simmons said he spoke with Ward after his postgame comments. It’ll be kept “off the record,” the Pro Bowl defensive tackle said, but he noted that he had advice for the rookie quarterback.
“When these microphones are in front of you, they can blow up just one part of what you’re saying,” Simmons said. “When you turn on the tape, there’s a reason why we come in and be like, ‘We’re right there.’ There’s a reason why we come in and be like, ‘I feel like we have a chance to win football games on Sundays.’ … It’s just the small things we need to fix to help us win football games.”
The small things?
This is why Ward’s mentality is needed.
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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