Titans QB Cam Ward Gives Perfect Answer on Rookie Struggles
Buck Reising discusses a response given by Titans QB Cam Ward at Day 1 of Training Camp to a question about his rookie year struggles. Buck evaluates why Ward's response was perfect and shows promise for his Year 2.
Video Transcript
The Titans 2026 training camp is officially underway.
Day one in the books, and Cam Ward already being tex- tested Test- texted?
Tested.
Either way, responded in great fashion, and we will talk about that tonight.
Welcome into the Primetime video.
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Day one was solid for Cam Ward.
Got off to a nice start.
Wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but did throw two touchdown passes.
I saw that Jimmy Wyatt of the team's official website tracked him as 11 of 16 with a pair of touchdown passes.
They had him three for eight in the red zone, but did throw the two touchdown passes in that red zone period.
So a quality day for Cam Ward in day one on the field.
Beyond that, it was a bit of an acclimation process.
Carnell Tate appears to be the genuine article.
The Titans offensive line may end up being the worst Titans offensive line unit I've seen in 11 years covering the team, and Cam Ward will have to adapt to that.
Is it, far premature to say something like that?
Probably, but I don't know.
I'm not reassured by seeing the efforts of Dan Moore, and no JC Latham dealing with a pec strain, and, JC, or rather Slater, Jackson Slater out there starting.
Guys like Austin Schlottmann who were brought in here to start on a one-year deal, not reassuring.
Jeff Simmons, JFM, made them look like fools.
Now, on the opposite side of that coin, you might say, "Well, the Titans defensive line is going to be truly special," and I might hear you on that.
I think that Carnell Tate may also break the Titans wide receiver curse, because this franchise has several positions that it is cursed at.
It might be the two most important positions being the quarterback and the wide receiver.
I don't know about Cam Ward just yet, but I know that C- Carnell Tate, who was on the radio show today, if you missed that interview, is the genuine article like I mentioned.
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So Cam Ward spoke at the podium after his first day of training camp practice.
Physically, he looked good.
As far as things that you noticed from the off-season program that carried over, obviously Brian Daboll is still working through that process.
Shay Tierney, the quarterback's coach, is still working through the acclimation process with Cam Ward.
But I thought today for day one was very smooth.
We'll be back out there tomorrow doing the radio show.
Wandale Robinson will join us on the radio show, and we will ask him about working with Cam Ward, the adjustment of going from Dart to Ward, and what he's observed in his first couple of training camp practices, 'cause he will then have two under his belt.
But for Cam, it looked pretty smooth.
This off-season was pretty rocky until we got to mandatory mini camp, and I thought he put together his two best performances of the off-season program on the final two days.
I was glad to see him start off strong.
I will be curious to see whether he can stack days the way that they talk about in pro sports, or really in any line of work, but in particular pro sports with consistent performances.
It doesn't have to be highlight reel spectacular, but it does have to be consistent.
It does have to be efficient.
And so efficient and consistent were not what the Titans offense was last year, was not what Cam Ward was last year, and there are fair questions to ask of Cam about how he's handling the situation.
And one such question came up today in the post-practice press conference, where we spoke to Cam, defensive lineman Jeffrey Simmons.
Wandale Robinson was one of the podium players as well, and I believe John Franklin Meyers.
I, I was not down there for the full media availability.
We were up on the terrace doing the radio show.
But I believe I saw JFM speaking at the podium too.
I'll have to go back and watch his press conference.
I did not see or hear the full part of it because I was not physically at the press conference area.
I was sitting up on the terrace doing the radio show with Lucas and Robert and interviewing Carnell Tate.
So with that, the offensive line is concerning, and Cam Ward is going to have to find survival mode throughout the course of the season.
But the thing that I consistently come back to with Cam is that he is cut out for this from a mental makeup standpoint, and it may be the most important component.
It may be Cam Ward's only superpower as an NFL player.
Maybe he will develop further superpowers as his career progresses, as he progresses, assuming that he does progress, and I think that's a fair assumption.
He is an ascending player, as we saw towards the end of last season.
How much more he has to ascend, far too early to have a discussion.
But I do believe that Cam Ward is cut out for the struggles that will come with a rebuilding team.
And so one such question was asked of him today by Jared Stillman, who was at Cam Ward's press conference, and asked him specifically about the Netflix documentary Quarterback.
It was I believe it's season three of Quarterback, where Cam Ward is one of four quarterbacks featured.
I myself did not watch Quarterback.
I Th- there was no real reason for me from a coverage standpoint to watch Quarterback, and I know Cam Ward's personality after a full year inside and out.
I There's no surprises there, and that's, that's a good thing, right?
That's a very good thing.
Also, Netflix, you know, it's, it's a, it's a, a cleaned up version of the things that hap- actually happened.
They barely, from what I understand, they barely talked about Brian Callahan getting fired and the dysfunction of the Titans last year, 'cause the Titans don't wanna look bad on Netflix, understandably so.
But I'm not interested in the, you know, the happy hand job version of the three and 14 football team, if that makes any sense.
So it was not all sunshine, butterflies, and rainbows, and fishing for Cam Ward, as it may have seemed via Netflix.
He described his season in the quarterback documentary as all right as 3-14.
He was asked today about that by one of the media members in attendance.
As I mentioned, Jared Stillman was the one that asked the question.
I thought it was a good question by Jared.
I thought it was a better response by Cam.
You said in the Netflix documentary you thought your rookie season was all right.
The team went 3-14.
You had the lowest QBR amongst qualified passers in the NFL.
So what exactly were you using to define all right?
Good with bad.
He's going to have good plays.
He's going to have bad plays, but it's limited it.
Over the course of the year, I got better at things that I wanted to get better at.
But I really think that whole year helped shape me and a lot of other rookies to that football is the same.
We got to be about the players.
We got to be what the players are comfortable with, what the players are good at doing, what got us to this point.
And I think that's been the best part of being a part of that as I was able to learn throughout the process, even now.
So that is Cam Ward speaking about his 3-14 rookie season.
It's a tough question.
It's a fair question because it's not all right.
That's not the standard.
But I do think that for the circumstance, understanding the context, and I know the full context of Cam Ward's rookie season, understanding that context is important because he just got here, even though they have been a losing organization.
They've been the worst organization in football by record over the last four years.
They are in the category as the same category as the Jets, the Raiders, the Cardinals.
Who else would you put in that situation?
The Giants have been God forsaken in these last few years, but nobody over the course of the last four seasons has a worse record than the Tennessee Titans organization.
That doesn't matter to Cam Ward.
Cam Ward is responsible for 3-14, but he's not responsible for the three previous years.
And so his lessons in those losing moments, and there were many, even in the wins, are critically important to see how he learns from the fact, how he learns from it.
The fact that he brought nuance to the discussion, the fact that he understands that it is, you know, it's 3-14, but it's not the end of the world.
It's the first year of his career.
He needs to bounce back.
And it will never be acceptable again.
If he goes 3-14 again in any way, shape, or form, whether it's this year, the following year, two years from now, five years from now, 10 years from now, however long Cam Ward's career with the Tennessee Titans organization lasts.
And no one can predict how long that exactly will be.
If you're a Titans fan, obviously you're hoping that he is your solution for the foreseeable future and a franchise quarterback that you have been hoping, waiting, and wishing for over and over and over again.
While we wait to learn whether or not he is of that caliber, I think it is important that he takes context and nuance and the learning from the losses into this next season so that it never, ever, ever happens again.
It will not be all right if he goes 3-14 as a sophomore.
If he wins six games, I don't think that there should be moral victories, right?
Even though they will have doubled their win total from the previous season and matched the last two years of wins that they have had, where they have only had six wins in the last two seasons as they head into 2026.
For Cam, it is critically important that he hits the ground running right away.
This week one game against the Jets seems far away.
It is not actually.
I believe that game is September the 13th when the Titans will host the Jets when Chris Johnson will be inducted into the Ring of Honor in the first game of the final season of the old Nissan Stadium, of which I would hope just as a send-off and certainly a tribute to Chris Johnson, I would hope that Titans fans would be in attendance in the early part of the season, at least in that first week, in droves, right?
Because you don't know how long they might last this season.
And maybe you're kind of in wait-and-see mode, or maybe you're all in and you're going to ride it out and come hell or high water, you're a Titans fan and that's what you're going to do.
You're going to show up and watch your team.
But most people don't, right?
And understandably so.
There are far better things to do with your time than watch losing football, especially to pay exorbitant amounts of money for losing football.
Cam Ward has to beat the Jets.
Cam Ward can't set the tone.
And it's not just Cam against the Jets, right?
It's the Titans against the Jets.
It's Salah against Glenn.
It's Cam against the Jets defense.
It's Jeffrey Simmons trying to track down Geno Smith.
There, it does not have to define his sophomore season, but it will be toxic if they don't find ways to find a seamless, mistake-free, or as close to it as humanly possible operation because they cannot have their season start the way that last year did, where you are looking at the coach and being like, you're not capable of doing this job.
Where you're looking at the quarterback and saying, okay, there's some things there, but that simply was not enough against the Denver Broncos last year to start the season.
Where you're looking at Calvin Ridley and being like, what the hell happened to you, dude?
You were fine during training camp.
There was a quality connection there between you and the number one overall pick at quarterback.
And all of a sudden you're dropping critical passes on third down and making Cam Ward's father stand over in dismay because of the way that you are not following through with your side of the bargain, right?
Pass must be caught.
Pass must find ways to, you must find ways to prolong drives, especially against a quality team that was struggling out of the gate in Denver in week one on the road.
And you're in a one score game.
Calvin Ridley let Cam Ward down last year.
Not all of this is Cam Ward's fault.
And I think everybody in the world understands that, but those excuses end today.
Those excuses will now be exactly that.
They will be excuses.
And Cam Ward mostly, not alone, but mostly, primarily will have to shoulder that burden.
How he responds is going to be fascinating to watch.
I believe that he has the mental makeup to do exactly that.
Whether he has the actual skill necessary to succeed at a reasonably high level to the standard of a league average NFL team.
That of course remains to be seen.
That's what we're going to learn throughout the course of training camp.
But I thought today it was a perfect response.
Appreciate you guys as always.
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Come hang out with us tomorrow at training camp on the radio show on 104.5 The Zone.
