As the summer of Cam Ward begins in Nashville, there’s going to be a lot of chatter about where the Tennessee Titans should start in developing their new franchise QB. While the Heisman candidate was clearly the top quarterback prospect in the draft, he’s not yet a fully-former player.
His rapid progress each of his five years in college—while stepping up in level of competition along the way—outlines the sharp trajectory he’s on. That trajectory is a big part of why the Titans took him: they see a total natural at the position who has demonstrated rapidly how good he can be as a pro.
So what’s the key to making his transition to the big leagues successful? What can Brian Callahan, OC Nick Holz, and QB Coach Bo Hardegree work on with him to maximize his impact out of the gate? You’ll probably hear talk of footwork, arm angles, and Cam’s unique release over the summer. We’ll dissect those fundamentals he’s working to hone throughout camp, pontificating on how it’s going to be the thing that unlocks a new gear for him.
But I think the real key to success this year is simpler than that: they just need to keep him playing on time.
Don’t get me wrong, one of the most exciting elements of Cam’s game is what he can do when the play breaks down and things are off-schedule. “Creative” is a word that’s often used in his evaluation, and rightfully so. He’s an artist out there, and his college highlight reel has plenty of these moments that you see from the most elite passers in the NFL. It’s impossible to stay on-schedule 100% of the time, and being an elite creator is the kind of upside every QB-needy team hunts every spring.
But Cam’s biggest mistakes on his college tape came in moments when he wasn’t playing on time. That’s not uncommon for any QB, but Cam’s turnover problems and bozo moments came most often on these types of plays. The good news is that while Cam has elite creation upside, his real superpower at the next level (at least, in my opinion) is going to be his fast processing and release quickness.
He see’s the field at a really high level. He plays football with a resting heart rate or 65BPM. Don’t fact-check me on that one, but it sure likes like it. He reads out the defense at an above-average level already and his somewhat funky mechanics get the ball out of his hand very quickly. And playing in a Brian Callahan offense in particular, leaning on those traits is how he’s going to win.
Callahan wants someone who is going to execute his offense. He wants someone who, like Joe Burrow does so well in Cincinnati, can operate a high-volume passing game with a lightning-quick trigger. That’s Cam Ward! So enable him to do that by giving him easy buttons this year. Use play action, RPOs, whatever it takes to spread the ball around in a hurry and give him high-success-rate looks.
I’d imagine this is exactly what Brian Callahan and his staff plans to do.
