Cam Ward’s struggles at Tennessee Titans OTAs shows similarities to two of the highest upside young NFL QBs
Cam Ward’s struggles at Tennessee Titans OTA practices actually put him in great company for NFL hot shot quarterbacks.
The narrative surrounding Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward this week have already spiraled out of control from his OTA practice performance.
Even the idea of me feeling the need to produce the piece of content makes me feel slightly annoyed, but it’s something we all need as football consumers.
Robert Saleh’s Titans gifted us (the local media) two bonus opportunities to watch practice we were not originally scheduled to view. I wonder if after Monday and Tuesday’s practice there’s some hindsight regret from the team. Not only has Ward become a ridiculous topic of online conversation, but Carnell Tate got dinged Monday and missed practice Tuesday.
Easton Freeze did a great job overviewing Ward’s “struggles” in Titans OTA practices, and what it means. I’ll take it a step further: Cam Ward is far from alone in his current situational struggles.
Ward joins Drake Maye, Caleb Williams in his sophomore June struggles
To begin, shoutout to Justin Graver for providing this reflection into the Patriots and Bears quarterbacks from exactly one year ago. These three quarterbacks have two obvious things in common: they all are second year highly drafted QBs, and all had new head coaches, offensive coordinators from their rookie seasons.
“Drake Maye struggles with four interception day, plus other Patriots OTA observations” was the headline from CBS Sports’ Tyler Sullivan recapping a May 2025 practice.
Sullivan’s analysis was very appropriate when discussing Maye’s day, which included interceptions on back to back throws.
“Maye’s turnover-filled afternoon is an early reminder that there will be growing pains with the second-year signal-caller, particularly as he learns Josh McDaniels’ offense. While there will be struggles, there will also be some flashes of promise. Later on Tuesday, Maye completed a ball to second-year wideout Javon Baker deep down the right sideline, beating Gonzalez — a second-team All-Pro corner in 2024 — in coverage.”
Williams, had similar “accuracy issues” claims while learning the system from his new coach Ben Johnson a year ago. Jordan Siegler of Chi City Sports did a great job overviewing what the Bears were working through during May and June a year ago, with comments from Johnson.
“I had that narrative in Miami when we drafted Tannehill in 2012, that he struggled with the deep ball, and you just keep focusing on it–you get close with your receivers,” Johnson said. “It’s it doesn’t matter if you’re throwing the ball deep, throwing it short, but it takes some time to develop chemistry.
“And once you get that done, then usually, it becomes clockwork after that. So it’s just the more repetitions we get as a unit, the better off we’re going to be.”
Year 2 leaps from Maye, Williams and Ward’s expectations
Both Maye and Williams led their teams to the NFL playoffs in year two after missing the playoffs as rookies. Maye helped the Patriots go to the Super Bowl.
The most impressive way to look at these two is the difference between their rookie production and second year production.
Williams improved by ten total touchdowns, threw for 400 more yards, improved his passer rating and… wait for it… was sacked 44 less times in 2025 than his rookie season.
Maye’s year two jump was even more astonishing. The Patriots QB there 31 touchdowns compared to 15 as a rookie. Maye’s passer rating jumped 25 points, and he threw for over 83 more yards per game.
The opportunity for Ward is the same. It doesn’t mean it will happen. I’m not expecting the Titans to make the playoffs in 2026, and I think it’s unfair to expect Ward have the statistical explosion to match Maye.
I do expect Ward to have a substantial jump because of the sweeping upgrades all around him. Daboll is a much more proven coordinator than he had a year ago. Tennessee has flipped the roster with over 30 new free agents and draft picks. Ward’s pass catching weapons will be helping him, instead of hurting him like they were at times in 2025.
The entire point of June OTA and minicamp struggles is that they are normal and should be expected. If struggles don’t exist when learning a new system then something is wrong.