No. 1 overall pick Cameron Ward suited up for his second preseason game Friday when the Titans hit the road to face the Falcons, and while it was a mixed bag of an individual performance, the highs outweighed the lows. Ward completed just two of his seven pass attempts but displayed tremendous arm strength in the process, showing exactly what Tennessee saw in him when it made him the first player selected in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Ward started the contest and played three drives, up from the two he saw in last week’s preseason opener. He threw one fewer pass and tallied 42 yards to last week’s 67.
Cameron Ward explains why he believes the Titans can have a ‘top 10 offense’ this season
Steven Taranto
“I wanted to send him back out there,” coach Brian Callahan said of the decision to give Ward an extra series. “The play number was still low. Those penalties kind of knocked us out of some of those favorable down and distances, and we didn’t convert third downs. So we wanted to get him one more series because the play count was still relatively low.”
The sample size is still small, and the rigors of playing a full NFL regular-season game still lie ahead for Ward, but the early returns are largely positive. Here are three takeaways from Ward’s preseason outing against the Falcons.
Active with his feet
The pass protection up front left something to be desired, but Ward made the Falcons’ rushers a non-factor with his ability to move out of the pocket.
That was apparent from the very start of his outing when he scooted away from pressure on a play-action pass, stepped out of the pocket to the right side and delivered a ball on the money to Elic Ayomanor. The catch and run went for 35 yards, giving Ward his biggest highlight on his first throw of the evening.
Tennessee’s offensive line also folded on Ward’s second pass play, again forcing him to work outside the hashes. A holding call negated the play, on which Ward launched a deep ball incomplete. The lateral movement was a good sign from a quarterback who did not have to worry too much about his pocket protection in college as he played behind a ferocious line at Miami.
“He’s shown all the things that we need to see from an operation standpoint,” Callahan said. “The holding and a false start on a third-and-short that put us in a third-and-longer, not ideal, but that’s really not on him. Those are things that we’ve gotta do better around him.”
The Titans invested heavily through the last couple of drafts in rebuilding what was at one point arguably the worst offensive line in the NFL, so Ward may not have to improvise as much in the years to come as the group improves.
Arm strength on display
Ward’s strong arm is perhaps his greatest asset and the primary trait that warranted his selection at No. 1 overall. It was obvious on Friday how much upside that cannon of a right arm gives him.
Ironically, it was on a pair of incompletions that Ward flashed his strength to the greatest degree. The first instance came on the aforementioned improvised play wherein the offensive line committed a holding penalty. Ward played through the flag and chucked a throw way downfield, but it carried his receiver out of bounds. The catch would not have stood anyway, but it was a dazzling example of Ward’s noted ability to fire deep balls on the run.
The other incompletion was a masterclass in quarterbacking and a lowlight from the receiving corps. Ward zipped a pass over the heads of three defenders and into the perfect spot for his target, Van Jefferson, who saw the ball slip through his hands.
“Next play,” Ward said of the drop. “That’s all we can do. If I need to throw the ball better, or if he thought a little too far out in front, or if he just thought he dropped the ball. At the end of the day, it’s on both of us. We gotta make that play. It’s better to happen now than come season time.”
The play had “highlight touchdown” written all over it, but Jefferson could not haul in the laser of a toss from his heralded quarterback.
“I came up to him to see how the ball was,” Ward said. “He thought it was a little bit out in front, so I just gotta put it on his chest next time.”
Accuracy, timing still works in progress
Preseason is as much about displaying raw skills as it is about accumulating stats, and Ward’s 2 for 7 night was far better than it looked on paper. Not all of the incompletions were on Ward, and the plays he did make were outstanding. But as the numbers show, he was far from perfect in putting the ball on the money.
Ward thew off target on a third down play, missing his receiver well short of the line to gain to conclude his second drive. He also sailed a pair of throws out of Ayomanor’s reach on his third and final series.
The timing and accuracy should come, though. Never in his college career did Ward finish a year with lower than a 64.4% completion rate. And three drives is too small of a sample size to draw any conclusions in that regard.