Titans Preseason Instant Reaction: Cam Ward improves from bad to quiet, starting defense delivers disappointing Nissan Stadium debut in preseason Week 2
The Titans played their second preseason game of 2026 Sunday night, and a brief showing from the starters did everything but fill fans with inspired confidence…
The Tennessee Titans’ starting offense and defense each got three series to work in their second preseason game of 2026, and the result was an all-around disappointing performance in their first Nissan Stadium showing of the year.
Cam Ward, the Titans’ run game, and Robert Saleh’s defense all failed to inspire confidence in a flat outing against the Seattle Seahawks that will leave Tennessee fans with more questions than answers heading into the regular season.
Cam Ward’s nothing performance
Ward’s stat line tells the story of an anonymous performance: 8-for-12 passing for 69 yards with an 81.6 passer rating. No interceptions, no touchdowns, one fumble on a scramble where he didn’t protect the ball well enough (it went out of bounds). For him to not come out for another series after those first three was disappointing, though understandable given how much he was scrambling and getting roughed up at the end of plays. I get the coaching staff wanting to call it there and not put him in the line of fire anymore.
Was it as bad as the preseason opener in San Francisco? No, it wasn’t actively bad. But it wasn’t good either. His most impressive play was one that didn’t count, a scramble drill downfield near-connection to Gunnar Helm whose second foot landed out of bounds.
It was just a nothing performance upon first watch, and it’s going to leave Titans fans further wondering what Ward will look like when the live bullets are being fired. We need more (real) date, but the little “game action” we’ve gotten so far is far from inspiring.
A lonely bright spot and a dead run game
The run game wasn’t as successful as it was during joint practices against Seattle earlier this week. Running back Tony Pollard carried twice for 12 yards, while Tyjae Spears managed just two yards on two carries. Pollard’s biggest contribution came in the receiving game, where he caught a swing pass and broke free for 33 yards after a couple of Seattle defenders collided. That was the largest gain of the entire starting offense’s outing, and it came courtesy of a defensive error.
Spears, though, was a rare winner on the offensive side. He caught three balls for 14 yards and looked fresh. He looked like the spark plug you’re hoping he can be in this offense, and he was being used in diverse ways. I actually found myself calling for Spears to be taken out of the game because I liked what I saw and wanted them to protect him. My biggest issue with Spears has never been whether he can be a diverse and electric member of an offense. It’s that he can’t stay healthy! Pack him up for the regular season, we’ve seen enough.
Wide receiver Carnell Tate had an opportunity to make a really nice one-on-one catch over the shoulder on a touch pass from Ward, which hit him in both hands. He was just a hair shy. This is where the preseason gets strange in my opinion. He needs to catch that ball. But the vibe I got watching it is that in a regular season game, he probably lays out for it. He didn’t in this game, and so the ball fell incomplete.
The same feeling came when the Titans had a 4th and half a yard which they went for, in a textbook QB sneak spot. But of course, nobody is putting their QB in a position to get hurt there in a preseason game. so they ran Spears up the gut and lost possession on downs.
Saleh’s defense comes out sound asleep
The defense was more noteworthy than the offense, but for all the wrong reasons. The starting Titans defense talked a big game and looked good against the Seattle starters during joint practices, but in this three-series outing against the Seahawks’ backups, they experienced a rare joint practice hangover.
Tennessee allowed a 7-play, 79-yard touchdown drive on the game’s opening possession, capped by a 36-yard touchdown pass from Drew Lock to tight end Elijah Arroyo. Safety Kevin Winston Jr. appeared to bite on the wrong route and left a soft zone coverage over the top that allowed for an easy explosive touchdown.
After the Titans offense had to settle for a field goal, the defense gave up a 4-play, 79-yard touchdown drive defined by a 69-yard touchdown run up the middle by Seahawks running back Jacardia Wright. The Titans’ run defense is supposed to be a near-impenetrable force this year, and on paper they have no excuse not to be. But Wright ran right through a nicely blocked hole with no resistance from the secondary and went to the house.
There was also what would have been a Titans interception on a broken play behind the line of scrimmage, but it was called back for a penalty on cornerback Cor’Dale Flott, who has been under fire from Titans fans in recent weeks. The TV broadcast explained how it was a questionable call, so I won’t hold that one against him. That said, he and the entire starting defense looked disconnected and a tick too slow to react to the naked eye.
SEA QB Drew Lock went 11-for-11 for 87 yards and a touchdown before finally recording his first incompletion on his 12th pass attempt. That is not what you need from a defense run by Saleh and stocked with the horses to be one of his best units!
Is Saleh’s defensive reputation suddenly on the hot seat? I can’t say that, because it’s the second preseason game with a new team and I refuse to buy the preseason as anything more than a series weird, unreliable clues. But I also can’t say things are looking good in that department! The hope is that it’s just the preseason, it’s weird, and it doesn’t really matter to Saleh. But that is cope until proven otherwise, and it’s not a good feeling to see these results.
The painfully slow march to the regular season continues on. You just have to pray that once the actual bullets start flying, things look different for whatever reason.
What the heck is preseason football in the first place
Here’s the thing about the preseason: it is delightfully dumb.
Each game is one of three things: either the result means something and you take it at face value, which history tells you is unreliable. Or it means nothing, but then you’re just coping by accepting what is good for you and discounting what is bad. That’s not historically reasonable either. The third option is that the preseason is this vacuous, formless thing full of voodoo and black magic where everything means everything and nothing means nothing, and it’s impossible to decipher what exactly is going on.
That’s kind of where I land, frankly. You want to look good. If you don’t look good, it is hardly a firm indicator that you’re going to struggle in the regular season. I’ve seen units look terrible in the preseason and then look great in the regular season, and vice versa. So this is a bummer, but hardly a cause for alarm. I’m looking for little clues, little hints, little wrinkles about the character of what this team is going to look like and feel like schematically, more than I am the actual positive and negative results. What are the firm details that may translate to the regular season, more so than whether it looked good or bad? That’s up to interpretation. Titans fans have to hope that the success (or lack thereof) first two preseason showings in the Saleh era mean very little. That’s all there is to do at this stage.
