Tennessee Titans general manager Mike Borgonzi didn’t dodge the Cam Ward question. When asked what the next step looks like for the Titans’ second-year quarterback, Borgonzi gave a clear, on-the-record answer. To me, that answer explains a lot about what we’ve watched from Tennessee’s offense.

The comments came from Borgonzi’s weekly pregame interview on Titans Radio with Will Boling. Boling and Ramon Foster discussed them on Monday’s show after the Titans beat the Colts.

Mike Borgonzi pinpoints what Cam Ward has to fix

Boling set the stage with Next Gen Stats from the Colts win. Ward completed three of six downfield passes for 45 yards and a touchdown in the second half. He attempted one downfield pass in the entire first half, and that was the interception. Ward also handled the blitz well. He faced one pressure on seven blitzes and completed five of seven passes for 49 yards and his lone score against it.

Then Boling relayed what Borgonzi told him when he asked about Ward’s next step. His answer, according to Boling, was that the next step for him is to get to the second or third read and complete some more passes downfield.

Boling made sure to separate his own read from the GM’s. He said he sees plenty of moments where Ward locks onto his first option. Then he went back to Borgonzi’s exact message: that’s the next step we want to see him take. Get to the second or third read. Trust what’s there. and find some plays downfield.

Is Brian Daboll spamming the Carnell Tate button?

Here’s where I started connecting the dots.

If Ward struggles to get past his first read, it makes sense that the offense would run through whoever wins first. Lately, that’s been rookie wide receiver Carnell Tate.

Look at the Calvin Ridley touchdown Ward missed against the Colts. Ridley was, at the very least, the second read. Head coach Robert Saleh said earlier in the week that Ward was trying to “rip a throw” to Tate. If he had waited half a beat, one more hitch, he would have seen Ridley. That fits a problem we’ve noticed since the first preseason game in San Francisco. Ward plays sped up.

Tate’s numbers made me wonder about one more thing. He drew six and five targets in the first two weeks but turned them into 38 and 27 yards. Then came breakout games against the Giants and Baltimore, an ugly day for everybody against the Texans, and six catches on seven targets against the Colts.

Did offensive coordinator Brian Daboll decide around Week 3 that if Ward can’t consistently get to his second and third reads, he might as well make the fourth overall pick the primary read more often?

Easton Freeze doesn’t buy it. He sees Tate’s emergence as a normal rookie learning curve that’s moving faster than usual because Tate is a stud, not as some dramatic schematic shift. That’s fair. I’m not fully off my theory, though.

Cam Ward’s tape is still murky after 22 games

The Titans’ GM told the relatively obvious truth, and Easton was glad he said it on the record. In his view, Ward has regressed in some key areas compared to his rookie season, and the change in offense and personnel doesn’t fully explain it.

Receivers are open on plenty of football plays when the quarterback still made the correct read. Remember the screenshots of Wan’Dale Robinson’s delayed slant in the red zone against the Texans? Ward had already thrown elsewhere, and that pre-snap read was likely the right one. A missed open guy doesn’t always mean Ward blew it.

That’s what makes this so hard to judge. By my math, Ward has now played 22 full games in the NFL, and the picture is still muddy. The tape doesn’t look as bad as the results. The stats are gross. There are flashes, but fewer than last year.

Easton put it best. Ward isn’t a guy bumping into a hard ceiling. He’s a plane with a bunch of loose nuts and bolts, rattling in the sky and making everybody uncomfortable.

The question is how long the Titans can wait for someone to tighten them down. Borgonzi already told us exactly where to look. Now Ward has to go find those second and third reads. . . and hit them.