“I think we stole him” — QB Cam Ward props up Titans rookie as four pass catching targets the offense is feeding most emerge
Calvin Ridley is the only Tennessee Titans pass catcher we can be absolutely certain will get a high volume of targets this year, if he stays on the field. He is a good ball player. I just finished watching him win consistently against A.J. Terrell in Atlanta the past two days during Titans-Falcons joint practices. […]
Calvin Ridley is the only Tennessee Titans pass catcher we can be absolutely certain will get a high volume of targets this year, if he stays on the field. He is a good ball player. I just finished watching him win consistently against A.J. Terrell in Atlanta the past two days during Titans-Falcons joint practices. Terrell is one of the better corners in the league. I also watched him maintain a 1300-yard pace last season once he settled into the Titans’ offense, and that was in a relatively atrocious passing game situation. At one point at practice this week, I was compelled to look up the NFL record for targets in a single season. It’s Marvin Harrison in 2002. He saw 205 targets from Peyton that year. Alright, maybe Ridley’s not breaking that one. But the thought crossed my mind.
The Titans’ offense is going to be a higher volume passing offense in 2025, though, for two big reasons. First, because they’ll probably be trailing in games. And second, because Brian Callahan trusts Cam Ward a whole heck of a lot more than Levis or Rudolph to execute a timing-based, quick passing offense. So who else is catching the ball on this team?
Four Titans Receivers Getting Force-Fed Targets
The way I see it at training camp so far, there are four players that the team is making a concerted effort to go back to over and over in practice. Ridley is obvious. RB Tony Pollard also comes as no surprise, especially with Tyjae Spears out for the time being. TE Chig Okonkwo continues to handle the volume of the passing attack in his room, though Gunnar Helm may eventually catch him on that. And the fourth player that Cam Ward and Co. continue to go back to over and over again is rookie WR Elic Ayomanor.
Yes, if you know me and my work at all, you know I’ve been an Ayomanor guy since the winter. I am biased on him. But the fact of the matter is, in Atlanta this week , he got a very consistent diet of targets. Also worth noting is how diverse these targets are. He’s not just “screen guy” or “in-breaker guy” or “deep shot guy”; they’re running him on an increasingly varied route tree to all three levels of the field. It feels clear to me as a spectator so far that they want to get the ball in his hands.
Cam Ward’s Growing Confidence In Elic Ayomanor
I think it’s always easier to find out who a QB trusts by watching them play rather than to listen to who they talk about. Actions usually say it all in this department, and if you watched Cam Ward’s touchdown drive in his first preseason game, you got a prime example. His first three completions were three passes to Calvin Ridley. Cam dropped back and found his best receiver, it’s as simple as that. It’s easy for him to trust Calvin immediately. His trust with the others in this room is still being earned.
I could feel that bond with Ayomanor developing before our eyes in Atlanta this week. It’s not just that Cam kept trying to get him the ball, but that despite failing to do so a lot on Day 1, his desire to go back to Elic over and over didn’t falter. He kept trying it. We asked Elic if he could feel his role growing after Day 2 of practice, and he played it off like this feels like the norm to him:
“I don’t think so. Maybe, I don’t know. I feel like I get a good amount of balls every single day. And I don’t think they’re scripting who gets the balls, because you don’t get a scripted defensive look, which is really what dictates who gets the ball. So sometimes it’s just that you happen to get the ball more on this day, because the defense was giving you certain looks”
We asked him to compare the two days of practice for himself specifically. He didn’t hold back on how disappointing his first day felt:
“Today, yeah, today was a pretty good day for me. Yesterday probably was one of my worst days since I’ve been here. Like, I’m talking about since rookie minicamp, all the way up until now… I haven’t really had many bad practices, but that probably was one of them. Which is a good thing, obviously we’ve been traveling a lot, and the energy was kind of low (yesterday). So sometimes it’s good to have a bad practice, because then you can also show… everybody’s gonna have a bad day. You can show that you have the ability to not allow one bad day to spiral into more bad days, you know what I’m saying?”
There’s no doubt he left you wanting to see more physicality in his routes on Tuesday. The Falcons did a good job of playing sticky coverage on him, but at his size, he needs to will his way to turning “50-50” balls into “80-20” balls, as they say. He is bigger and stronger than just about every DB he’s going to face. If he puts it all together in the NFL, a big part of his game will be, well, being big.
“Why was it a bad day? I mean, I could give you a list of every single play and tell you what I could have done better on that play. But I think the biggest thing for me that I had to come and do today was just have better energy and get myself going. Yesterday I kind of looked like I couldn’t really get it going. Even in 1-on-1s, I really don’t lose 1-on-1s. And I lost the first two reps in 1-on-1s, so I gotta get myself going. So I came back today, I’m like, hey, let’s go.”
Cam Ward spoke glowingly of his fellow rookie after practice as well:
I’m always confident throwing to Elic. I think from a route runner standpoint, I think we stole him when we drafted him, especially me playing against him in the PAC 12. So I’ve seen him for quite a long time. I’m excited to continue to play him in real football games. I think his biggest attribute that he doesn’t get the recognition for is how physical he is, especially being that big and strong as he is, he can move off the line of scrimmage. He can move corners in and out of their breaks. And I just think the more that he continues to grow, continues to take little things from (Calvin Ridley)… You know, we take little things from Rid, from all the vets who have spent an extensive amount of time in the league, I just think it’s gonna end up helping him”
With Ridley to learn from, and Cam Ward’s trust in him growing, he could be the first rookie pass catcher to establish a role in this offense in 2025. The way things are trending right now, that day could come sooner rather than later.