Who are the individuals in the NFL this year who can actually change the outcome of their team’s season? Who has the juice to single-handedly swing wins and losses in a big way in 2025? That’s the question dear ole’ Uncle Colin set out to answer.
On of my favorite sports talk shows of all time is FS1’s “The Herd” with Colin Cowherd. Is it always the most intellectual program out there? No. But I’ll be damned if it isn’t entertaining. And love him or hate him, Cowherd knows what topics people care about as the winds of sports constantly shift around us. Call it a guilty pleasure if you like, but I like the show.
And last week, Colin shared his list of the four people who can change outcomes for their team in 2025. On that list were two coaches—Titans legend Mike Vrabel and the Bears’ Ben Johnson—and two quarterbacks—the Raiders’ Geno Smith, and his number one pick of this list, Titans 1st overall draftee Cam Ward.
“They led the NFL last year in turnovers. They were so hard to watch offensively, where even games they outplayed teams” Colin began to lay out. “Tennessee was so bad at quarterback with Will Levis and Mason Rudolph that they lost games where they out-physicaled, out-schemed, and outplayed teams. That's why Brian Callahan was often so frustrated with Will Levis. He knew he out-schemed, and they out-toughed, and out-physicaled, and out-played, and out-called teams and lost.”
That’s where he agrees with the Titans faithful: “Cam Ward is accurate, moves, coachable.” He’s who will change the trajectory of this franchise.
“I mean, Miami's had some good quarterbacks. He broke all the Miami records. He's a 67% completion percentage guy. I think he's a really special player. I thought he was easily the best quarterback in this class. And again, he's humble.”
Another thing that mattered to Colin was that “He was a zero-star recruit.” That’s something that NFL front offices value too, for similar reasons to what Cowherd laid out: “There's a history of this league. When guys come in without a lot of stars and without a lot of pats on the back, nobody's pandering to them. That's jet fuel. So I think Cam Ward changes outcomes. I think Tennessee's going to be a playoff team.”
We’ve seen this story before. Take Jayden Daniels and CJ Stroud in the past two season, for example. When you have a talented rookie QB come into your building, the potential to explode onto the playoff scene is always there. And while that may be an unrealistic expectation (more on that here), it’s a perfectly fair hope. And that’s the biggest thing Titans fans have going for them in this exciting year.
