Cam Ward’s footwork mechanics have become one of the most talked-about storylines of the Tennessee Titans’ preseason, and Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner just added fuel to the fire. Warner broke down Ward’s throwing mechanics from the 49ers preseason game, and his analysis confirmed what Titans fans have been seeing with their own eyes: the second-year Titans quarterback is too open with his feet when he throws.

To oversimplify it, Ward is a right-handed quarterback whose lead step-in foot (his left foot) is not pointing where the ball needs to go. It’s pointed too wide, which forces his arm to do the majority of the work. He’s been relying on his special arm talent because he’s been able to get away with it for a long time. The result? The ball sails too far to the right.

Think about the bubble screen to Wan’Dale Robinson that Ward threw too high and in front of Robinson. Ward’s left foot was basically pointing backwards toward the back end zone behind the Titans. That’s where the ball sailed.

Cam Ward addresses his footwork and mechanics

Ward was asked about his footwork and his mechanics, and his answer was honest about where things stand.

“I think there are times I need to feel the rush less early in the game, especially if it hasn’t made an impact. But as far as the timing and the receivers, I believe we’re at a great spot right now. It’s not where we want. We got some missed plays, some missed opportunities in both games. At the end of the day, it’s about how can we avoid this come week 1, whether it’s from my room, whether it’s from the receiver room, and it’s all (about) playing the next play because any day we’re gonna have a drop, we’re gonna have a bad throw, O-line’s gonna give up a sack this year It’s inevitable. The more we can limit that stuff, the more we’ll be able to have a consistent and efficient offense,” Ward said.

Ward was spot on with that answer. He’s feeling the rush too quickly before it needs to be felt early in games, and that’s likely a part of why he’s being sped up. When you’re sped up, your footwork breaks down because you’re trying to get the ball out quicker. We all saw it in the 49ers game. It didn’t take an NFL quarterback expert to see him feeling a rush that wasn’t totally there.

The Elic Ayomanor-Cam Ward parallel and fighting muscle memory

Freeze: All of this is a work in progress, and there’s a parallel worth drawing here. Titans wide receiver Elic Ayomanor talked about how his posture and forward lean is the biggest emphasis for him from a technique standpoint this offseason. You watch him in practice and it feels like he’s leaning so hard he’s about to fall down on the line of scrimmage. That’s not how you’d want it to look in a game. But the point is he’s doing it that way because he knows when the real bullets are flying, his muscle memory is going to revert to the old bad habits. You have to overemphasize to build a new baseline.

Then you watch the actual preseason games and there are moments where he’s kind of on his heels a little bit, reverting on certain plays where he would have been better off with more of a forward lean.

Ward is in the same boat. Any player fighting old muscle memory to implement a new technique faces the same battle. The footwork thing takes real reps. Doing it over and over in practice is step one to get that new feel in your body. Step two is forcing yourself to take that new feel into the games, and you can’t force yourself to do that until you have the real games.

Will Cam Ward actually fix his footwork this season?

Stanley: I don’t know if Ward is really going to fix his footwork. He’s been asked multiple times this offseason about it, and his answers have been pretty nonchalant, along the lines of “we’re okay with where it’s at.”

I hear that, but I also see where it creates more variance on his accuracy from one play to the next when his footwork is sloppy in the same way. That’s going to take more than just this season. It’s going to be a multi-year thing for Ward to be robotic with his footwork in practice so it’s close to robotic in the game.

It’s shooting a basketball. Everybody knows when you get lazy with your shot mechanics in a game, but in practice you better be the same way every time. It starts with your feet and moves all the way up.

I honestly don’t think he’s going to change his footwork this year. It’s something we’re going to be griping about in October, November, and December. Can he mitigate the damage by not feeling the rush too early, slowing down, and not letting it get as bad? Sure. But it’s going to be one of those things we have to keep watching as Tennessee heads into the regular season.