Minnesota Vikings head coach Kevin O’Connell remarked recently that NFL organizations fail young quarterbacks more than young quarterbacks fail organizations.
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Exhibit A of that statement, the Tennessee Titans.
Having already seen Will Levis wilt on the vine in his second season last year, we now have seven games of evidence that Cam Ward is not blossoming the way a No. 1 overall pick should be nearly halfway through his rookie season.
Look, it’s not really fair to Ward that the entire foreseeable future for this downtrodden franchise has been placed up on his young shoulders. But it comes with the territory of being the top pick in the draft.
However, it is fair to ask why Ward and the offense can’t seem to put together four sustainable quarters of decent play or avoid turnovers long enough to give the Titans a fighting chance to even stay in a game, much less win it.
Everyone knew the Titans roster was barren in a number of positions entering the season, but the results have been even worse than anyone could have imagined.
And it was driven home Sunday by the fact that the Titans, after a solid and promising first half in their debut under interim coach Mike McCoy, reverted to not being able to get out of their own way in the second half on the way to a 31-13 loss to former coach Mike Vrabel and the New England Patriots.
In case you don’t remember, the Titans last victory in Nissan Stadium came one year ago against those same Patriots when Drake Maye was a struggling rookie. But Sunday, he was in complete command just midway through his second season, throwing for 222 yards and a pair of scores against the Titans defense.
Just out of reach
Perhaps Maye’s rapid improvement is something to which Ward can aspire. After all, Ward started off hitting 10 of his first 11 passes and threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Chimere Dike to give the Titans a 10-3 lead Sunday.
But things returned to the status quo soon enough as Ward turned the ball over twice in the second half. The Titans managed just 79 yards of offense after halftime and scored no points.
Ward didn’t help matters with an unforced fumble for the second straight game. K’Lavon Chaisson returned that for a touchdown in embarrassing fashion rivaling Levis’ throwaway interception that helped doom the Titans in Chicago in last year’s season opener.
Ward’s fumble was his fifth in seven games to go along with five interceptions. He also has now been sacked 30 times, eight more than the next closest quarterback. Despite the struggles, he said he sees himself getting better.
“I’m feeling that I’m getting better just because of the level that you have to play at consistently. And just as a whole, myself and as an offense, we haven’t done that consistently,” Ward said after Sunday’s latest blowout loss. “And I just think the coaching staff, they never really tell us what we have to just continue to emphasize, they more tell us just to play the next play, continue to play.
“Because at the end of the day, you’re not going to have a perfect game. But you’ve got to continue to stack perfect plays to end up trying to be in a situation to win.”
Where’s the remote?
Never mind a win, the Titans have reached the point where it would be nice to see them be reasonably competitive enough to make fans not turn the channel every Sunday. The fact that they aren’t is certainly an alarming matter.
After all, both the Cleveland Browns and New York Giants, who had the two picks right behind the Titans in the 2025 draft, are becoming more competitive each week with rookie quarterbacks running their offenses.
Cleveland’s Dillon Gabriel hasn’t exactly set the league on fire, but he has not made the types of costly mistakes that Ward has made this season.
And Jaxson Dart has suddenly made the Giants a dangerous team since being inserted into the New York lineup as a dual-threat quarterback. Dart already has seven touchdown passes, including three Sunday, as the Giants nearly upset Denver just a week after defeating the defending Super Bowl champion Eagles.
Finding ways to be competitive with a rookie quarterback at the controls is difficult, but Gabriel and Dart are both showing that it is not an impossible task
Except, it seems, when it comes to the Titans, who continue to invent ways to fail their young quarterbacks.
Terry McCormick also covers the Titans for TitanInsider.com