Robert Saleh confirms suspicion about Cam Ward’s rough performance in Titans preseason opener against 49ers
Tennessee Titans second year QB Cam Ward didn’t look sharp in his first preseason game this year, but his new head coach knows exactly what to fix.
Cam Ward’s preseason debut for the 2026 Tennessee Titans did not go as anybody had hoped.
The second year NFL QB, under new Titans head coach Robert Saleh and new offensive coordinator Brian Daboll, opened Thursday night’s game in Santa Clara against the San Francisco 49ers with a promising 11-play, 95-yard drive that ended in a short Tony Pollard touchdown. Ward went 2 of 4 on that opening series with a couple of nice third-down conversion plays on nifty calls from Daboll and slick execution from the entire offense.
One was an 18-yard catch and run to Calvin Ridley in the flats on third and short. The other was a screen to tight end Gunnar Helm on third and long, where Ward showed patience, poise, and his ability to throw with his sidearm angle under the rushing defender to set up Helm for the first down after the catch. All of that was good.
After that, it was not good.
Ward ended his night after three series going 5 of 12 for 57 yards. He nearly threw an interception, took a costly intentional grounding penalty for a loss of 17 yards, and was sacked once (though that sack was wiped off by a defensive holding call in the secondary). He finished by throwing four straight incomplete passes.
National reaction meets local Titans context
As the national NFL audience took notice of Ward’s uneven debut under Daboll, the fair reaction was simple… that’s not great, and that’s not what Cam should look like.
For those of us in the Nashville market who have watched Ward in practice, the performance was underwhelming. Ward had been stacking good days together, including a strong scrimmage at Nissan Stadium and the Sunday practice that followed, before the trip to Santa Clara.
The throws Ward made on the second and third possession, outside of the final one to Carnell Tate that could have been picked, seemed like throws where the receivers were open. Things were just off. It wasn’t clicking with his pass catchers. One ball went off the hands of Wan’Dale Robinson. Timing seemed off on a slant attempt to Elic Ayomanor and another one to Robinson. Tate had three targets and zero catches. It just didn’t seem right.
Saleh’s day-after diagnosis confirms what I thought
Robert Saleh confirmed that feeling when he spoke to Titans media via Zoom on Friday morning after the team returned to Nashville. On Ward’s play specifically:
“The good news is going back and digging into the film, every pass play that Dabs (Brian Daboll) called yesterday, we’ve run in practice. You guys have been there and you guys have seen flashes of Cam and the entire offense operating at a very high level. It’s as simple as time on task. Every single one of those plays, he’s executed flawlessly in practice. He’s got to be able to have the confidence not only in himself but his teammates to execute, get your feet down, play with great technique and deliver the football just like he has. We’re going to continue to harp on all the technique, the fundamentals, we’re going to continue to rep things at a high level. But it’s just reps.”
Saleh was spot on with that comment. Ward is still learning this new offense. He’s learning a lot of new weapons around him. Thursday was the first time he was live, the first time he wasn’t wearing a red no-contact jersey. It had to have been a different feel for the most part in that situation.
Saleh said postgame that he thought Ward made the right decisions but was a little sped up. That felt like an accurate assessment immediately after the game. Then Paul Kuharsky asked Saleh on Friday if Ward being sped up was a carryover from last season’s necessity to speed things up because of the offensive line situation around him.
“That’s a fair question and you know, it could be. It’s the first time in live bullets, and there is a trust thing. And you look at the plays we had yesterday and I think he had ample amount of time when you look at it and when you look at the—like I said the play design, every single play that we ran yesterday we ran in practice and the entire offense executed perfectly. Again, its time on ask, its building trust with his teammates, building confidence in himself. But there’s no doubt that Cam (Ward) is capable, we just have to go out and execute.”
Cam Ward’s one bad night has to stay one bad night
The theme here is straightforward. One bad night. The first time together doing it for real, and it can be that, as long as Ward performs better when the Seattle Seahawks come to town for a joint practice and preseason game No. 2 at Nissan Stadium. One off night, and you have to execute better, just like Saleh said.
