The 2025 NFL Combine is in the rearview mirror, and the week the league just spent in Indianapolis was an eventful one. The Tennessee Titans were the hottest topic of the event, because everybody wants to know what they’ll be doing with the first overall pick.

Coming into the week, I repeated until I was blue in the face how it’s crucial to understand where the Titans are in their process. This is a three phase cycle for them, and Combine week is the end of Phase 1. It’s their first opportunity to meet with many of the players, such as Cam Ward, and those meetings matter a ton to those who will make the final decisions. They’ve watched every player on their board at this point, but only one-third of the nine (or more) games they’ll eventually watch of each player before draft day.

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I also said going into the week that the Combine would go a long way in helping to whittle down what exactly their realistic options are at the top of the draft. Well, seven long days and (too) late nights later, that’s certainly been the case. After many conversations both on and off the record with Tennessee brass, draft experts, and insiders from around the league, the landscape at the top feels much clearer than before.

Here’s the biggest change for me from what I thought before the week to what I think after it: I no longer really see a world in which the Titans stay at #1 overall and don’t take Cam Ward.

It was a very good week for the consensus QB1. For starters, the league all coming together for what’s functionally the annual NFL convention made that part crystal clear: for better or for worse, Cam Ward is seen as a definitive cut above Shedeur Sanders in most league circles.

I still think highly of both QBs personally, and see the vision for Sanders being a very good NFL starter. And I don’t foresee a free fall in the draft for him either; he’s liable to go anywhere from second overall to seventh overall, which is pretty much what the expectation has been all along.

But it simply was not a great week for the Colorado product. And I don’t mean just narratively, either. All indications from behind the scenes point to there being some things left to be desired.

Ward’s week was largely the opposite. He announced he wouldn’t be throwing at QB testing during his media availability, which was disappointing though unsurprising. But the returns from his meetings with teams were quite positive. The league was enamored with Cam Ward the person, the competitor, and the football mind; Tennessee included.

So does this mean I’m reporting Cam Ward is going to be a Tennessee Titan by the end of April? No. The reality of this process for the Titans that I shared before the Combine remains the reality today: this is an extremely meticulous process, and they won’t be coming to any final decisions until the end of this next month (Phase 2 in their process, at the earliest).

Another big thing from before the Combine remains true today: trading down is a very real possibility for the Titans. Not only is it something the front office is carefully considering with the long-term future of this rebuild in mind, but there are real suitors for the pick. Tennessee has received at least a couple of phone calls seriously inquiring about a trade, and that buzz is liable to increase as veteran dominoes continue to fall. It is the seminal decision of this Titans offseason, and perhaps the Titans-career-defining decision for everybody involved in the pick.

Somebody is going to take Cam Ward with the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. Whether it’s the Titans, or somebody else who convinces themselves he is worth going up to get, it’s going to be Cam.

That’s the overwhelming takeaway from Indianapolis. Admittedly, there’s a long time between now and draft day for things to change, at least in terms of our public perception. And the fog of war (haze of a sleep-deprived rumor mill) has convinced us of things that aren’t true plenty of times before. So the cautious voice in the back of my head is whispering… well, cautions.

But this feels very real. I believe it’s true. Travis Hunter and Abdul Carter are fantastic, and Shedeur Sanders is still going to be taken highly. But because of his upside on the field, his ability to impress in the meeting and locker room, and the positional value of quarterback, it’s going to be Cam at 1.

Now the question is who will be the team making that pick? If the Titans aren’t going to be picking at first overall, we may find out within the next 10 days or so as Free Agency approaches.

I think NFL Draft Expert and Insider Dane Brugler said it best to me on Radio Row:

“I think that when it’s all said and done, Cam Ward is going to be the number one overall pick… it’s just that I don’t know if it’s going to be the Titans.”

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