Tennessee Titans rookie QB Cam Ward already showcasing himself as 'great leader'
Tennessee Titans rookie QB Cam Ward already showcasing himself as 'great leader'
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Does Cam Ward have the pieces of a successful rookie quarterback?
Former NFL quarterback Jordan Palmer has 3 things he looks for in rookie quarterbacks, and 1st overall draft pick Cam Ward has what he's looking for.
Sports Seriously
Quarterback Cam Ward is already doing his part to ingratiate himself as the Tennessee Titans' next franchise quarterback.
Ward reported to rookie minicamp and started the process of learning everyone's name in the organization.
'I'm about business. I really want to be a pro. I want to be one of the great ones, and I want to be a good teammate at the end of the day,' Ward told the media. 'I want to win a lot of football games in my career.'
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The 2025 No. 1 overall pick hopes to establish himself as a leader.
'I want to be a leader. I want to be there for my teammates,' Ward said. 'When everything goes down, I want to be the person to lift everybody back up.'
So far so good. Ward's rookie teammates already view him as a chairman of the team.
"He's just a great leader," Titans rookie tight end Gunnar Helm said to reporters. "Super easy to talk to, super easy to connect with, super easy to communicate with on the field."
Titans head coach Brian Callahan, who played quarterback at UCLA, doesn't want to place the leadership burden on Ward too soon. He believes it'll happen organically as Ward gets more comfortable in the NFL.
'It's most important for quarterbacks, but Cam in particular. He just has to be himself. We're not asking him to do anything outside of what he would normally do. I think that personality will start to show as he moves forward and gets more comfortable and understands more,' Callahan said. 'Obviously, he's got to worry about himself first. He's got to make sure he knows what to do, how to do it and he's doing the things that he needs to do. But the leadership things come naturally. Those things show up as organically as possible as you're around players more and get more comfortable with people's personalities.'
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Ward, who won the 2024 Davey O'Brien Award (college football's top quarterback) and was Miami's first player to win ACC Player of the Year, was the franchise's (including Oilers) third player to be drafted with the first overall pick.
Tennessee has been marred by inept quarterback play in recent seasons. Will Levis didn't develop into a starting-caliber quarterback after he was selected in the second round in 2023. Levis tied an NFL-high with 18 turnovers last year and his 81.4 passer rating in 2024 ranked 29th among 32 quarterbacks with at least 300 dropbacks. The Titans haven't had a 3,000-yard passer since Ryan Tannehill in 2021.
While it's incumbent upon quarterbacks to be leaders, it's more important for Ward to lead by example on the field, which is likely why Callahan stated Ward must 'worry about himself first.'
The Titans have finished last in the AFC South in back-to-back seasons. They desperately need a quarterback to help them get out of the division basement.
Follow USA TODAY Sports' Tyler Dragon on X @TheTylerDragon.
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