Cam Ward, Tennessee Titans savior? No. 1 pick is a good prospect in a bad situation

New York Times

25-04-2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Save them, Cam Ward.
Save Tennessee Titans fans from football that has been even less watchable than successful, 17.6 points per game in the last 41 outings, nine of them wins. Save the players on this roster, the worst roster in the NFL by The Athletic's calculations, from more embarrassment. Save a second-year coaching staff, led by purported quarterback developer Brian Callahan, from winter dismissals that will leave you learning a new system as a second-year quarterback.
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Save the city of Nashville from opening a glorified bar district inside a shopping mall in 2027 — the new Nissan Stadium, built with a United States-record $1.26 billion in public money — filled with suits and no soul because the team is so bad.
Save the primary beneficiary of that public money from more of the haphazard moves that have her franchise in the company of the league's laughingstocks. That's controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk, author of huge 2022 extensions for GM Jon Robinson and coach Mike Vrabel; an in-season firing of Robinson months later; a dismissal one year after that of Vrabel after resolving to keep him; a hiring and firing of GM Ran Carthon in less than two years; and the elevation of a guy, hired by Carthon, to oversee the entire football operation, even though that guy was right next to Carthon for all of his missteps.
Save that guy, Chad Brinker, from being next. Unless it's the GM he just brought in, Mike Borgonzi. The reality is, both of them have tied their futures as decision makers in this league to your performance. If it isn't good, if this team doesn't start winning, that probably means more longtime, loyal employees let go as well, as roundly respected VP of football communications Robbie Bohren was in May. Save them, too.
Numbers don't lie 📈 pic.twitter.com/7hQu7klpBt
— Tennessee Titans (@Titans) April 25, 2025
This is what is asked of you, Cam Ward, a month shy of your 23rd birthday. It's a lot.
But you did go from zero-star prospect in West Columbia, Texas, to Incarnate Word to Washington State to a starring season for the Miami Hurricanes that turned you into the top pick in the draft. You did make instant followers of the Canes with your leadership style and wow Titans brass during the interview process. And you gave a glimpse Thursday night, saying to a room full of reporters on a Zoom call when asked about the role reversal from underdog to No. 1 pick: 'Ain't nothing flip for me. Still a lot of people out there who are talking crazy. Maybe some of y'all in that room.'
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'Everything about him, as a person and a player, is everything we're looking for,' Callahan said.
They're all in on you. They want to believe that in the NFL, you'll be the guy who made one dazzling play after the other to bring Miami a comeback win at Cal, and not the guy whose conscience-free miscues contributed to the deficit. They want to elicit full use of the gifts that prompted an NFL passing coordinator to say of you to The Athletic's Bruce Feldman: 'Cam's stroke is top 10 in the league immediately. His arm talent is ridiculous.'
They downplayed the idea that those gifts could be suppressed by what The Athletic's draft analyst Dane Brugler called 'questionable, forced decisions with negative results' in the film of every game of yours. They can't have this turn out to be the ill-advised reach of a quarterback-needy team for a prospect ranked No. 13 overall on The Athletic big board — a prospect who would have been slotted behind several other quarterbacks a year ago — when a trade down could have replenished this desolate roster. They can't have you bust while No. 1 prospect and No. 2 pick Travis Hunter goes on to greatness in Jacksonville that so many see for him.
The Jags gave a bundle of picks for Hunter, while the Titans refused 'multiple' offers, Borgonzi said, for you — including a reported haul from the New York Giants that included two first-round picks.
'That means a lot,' you said.
'I just think if you can identify a franchise quarterback,' Borgonzi said, 'there's really not a price you can pay for that in my mind.'
In his mind, informed as it is over years in the Kansas City front office, there are 'instincts and spatial awareness' reminiscent of Patrick Mahomes in your film. You actually cited Aaron Rodgers as a model in terms of 'little movement' in the pocket to buy time to make plays. Callahan cited your ability to connect with teammates as the most important trait. Certainly not the only one.
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Quick release. 'Incredibly' accurate. 'Incredibly' quick processor.
'Incredibly poised,' Callahan said, keeping with his favorite adverb. 'He has a great knowledge of both offensive scheme and defensive structure. He has what I would call a natural ability to feel space. … He just feels it.'
Save these people, Cam, and hope they give you the chance to save them by putting a legitimate team around you. By the end of this weekend, that should mean another playmaking receiver to catch your passes, multiple starters on defense and quality depth at any position you can name — it exists nowhere. That's how bad the drafting has been, and how good it has to be.
Save the Titans from their quarterback-drafting history. You're the first quarterback they've taken No. 1 overall, but the fourth to go in the first round since the last time that worked — Steve McNair out of Alcorn State, No. 3 overall, when the Tennessee Titans were still the Houston Texans.
The late McNair was chosen by the best GM in franchise history, the late Floyd Reese, and Reese would have gotten it right in his next attempt but was foiled by late owner Bud Adams. Adams had to have Vince Young out of Texas — a Houston kid, sticking it to Houston, even better. Some wanted Matt Leinart. Reese preferred Vanderbilt's Jay Cutler.
Young flamed out after a rookie of the year debut. Jake Locker, drafted by Mike Reinfeldt in 2011, couldn't stay healthy or throw accurately. Marcus Mariota, drafted by Ruston Webster in 2015, succumbed to injury and inconsistency after a promising second season.
Robinson took Malik Willis in the third round in 2022, and Carthon took Will Levis in the second round in 2023. Titans fans had to watch Willis beat them as a Green Bay Packers backup last season, and they may soon be watching the demoted Levis try to flourish elsewhere. As AJ Brown has done. As Derrick Henry has done. As Vrabel may soon do in New England.
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Save them from their quarterback history and save yourself from the history of quarterbacks as the No. 1 pick. Since the best of them, Peyton Manning in 1998, there have been more Tim Couches, JaMarcus Russells, Sam Bradfords and Jameis Winstons than Andrew Lucks and Joe Burrows. A lot of teams that draft first overall do so because they're among the most poorly run in the league, which makes it less likely they'll be able to support a quarterback taken at the top of the draft.
And your new team looks exactly like one of those teams right now. The Burrows of the world can overcome such things.
'What I expect out of my career,' you said, 'is to be one of the best quarterbacks to ever put it on.'
There's one thing that will be saved for certain: that quote.