It might not be time to give up on Cam Ward, but it is officially time to be worried.
One game into his second season, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick is exhibiting some of the same concerns that dogged him during his rookie season.
Ward wasn’t accurate in his season debut, missing a handful of throws that simply had to be completed. He and the offense were ineffective and boring.
Ward threw for 140 yards, the lowest total of any starting quarterback who wasn’t lost to injury. He averaged 4.4 yards per throw and hit just 59.4% of those passes. The Titans’ longest completion went for 14 yards. No matter what the situation, that won’t cut it in the NFL.
Yes, it’s a new offense and a new system with a new head coach, but Ward has to be better going forward. His 2025 draft classmates, the Saints’ Tyler Shough and the Giants’ Jaxson Dart, who were far less heralded than Ward during the draft process, are already starting to take steps in the right direction and looking like possible franchise quarterbacks, respectively.
Meanwhile, Ward’s offense continues to flounder, as reflected in its 20-3 deficit at the start of the fourth quarter on Sunday.
Team wins are not a quarterback stat as much as they are a team stat, but after Sunday’s loss, Ward would now need to win two of his next three starts just to equal the 5-16 record posted by his predecessor Will Levis, whom the Titans kicked to the curb in roster cuts this year.
No matter how optimistic you might want to be about Ward’s future, that stat should be alarming. At the very least, it seems to show that not enough progress is being made by Ward or the Titans.