The Tennessee Titans are in the midst of spring OTA’s, which means daily pictures and videos from practice posted to social media by the team account. Well… mostly daily. If you ask Titans Twitter, it’s not nearly enough. And it’s certainly not enough of Cam Ward in particular. But that’s a topic for another time.
Now in this media, Cam Ward isn’t the only guy throwing the ball to Titans skill players. Will Levis is also notably involved in that department. And it has a number of fans saying “hey! What’s the deal with that?”
Now to be fair to those fans, they aren’t just saying it because they’re seeing he’s involved at practice. They’re probably mostly saying it because they’re seeing he’s involved at practice and have heard Titans brass talk about how this is a QB competition. And to that, many people are saying “what?! Why?! Stop!”
Yes, if you ask Titans GM Mike Borgonzi, or President of Football Ops Chad Brinker, or Head Coach Brian Callahan, they’ll all tell you the same thing right now: Cam Ward—the 1st overall draft pick, and the obvious future of the franchise—is embroiled in a quarterback competition with Will Levis, Brandon Allen, and Tim Boyle.
Now if that feels insane, you’re right! It would be insane. That is, if it were truly what is happening. In reality, this is only a “competition” in so far as they’re making Cam Ward go through the paces of it. But it’s not one that he can actually lose. It’s rigged, he is going to win no matter what. This is a formality. He is going to be the Week 1 starter.
But perhaps your frustration doesn’t actually stem from your concern they may seriously choose to start Will Levis. Maybe you’re just mad that they’re incompetent enough to go through with it. “Remember when Urban Meyer held that long, drawn-out QB competition between Trevor Lawrence and Gardner Minshew?” you say.
Yes, I do remember that. And I remember the ridicule Jacksonville endured for it. Now, I’m not here to convince you Urban Meyer was actually a good NFL ball coach. That would be dumb, and also impossible. But what I am here to tell you is that if you ask every head coach in the league whether or not that was the right approach for a rookie QB’s first summer, almost all of them would undoubtedly tell you yes. Turns out, Urban did at least one thing right.
So why play this game? What’s the point of the charade, pretending Ward is competing for his job? The Titans have 3 very good reasons for it. Let’s take a look at each of them:
Gassing Up Will Levis Starts Now
This is the most obvious reason to hold a fake competition. If Will Levis is giving Cam Ward a run for his money in camp, how attractive a trade chip does he suddenly become!?
To go back to the Jaguars example for a moment, this was a part of what they accomplished as well. After a strong camp both narratively and literally, Gardner Minshew was traded by Jacksonville to the Eagles for a conditional 6th Round pick on August 28th. They waited until the last moment after they’d inflated his perceived value as much as they could, and then sold high.
This is what the Titans aim to do with Will Levis. And the narrative campaign they aim to hit hard begins right now. They’re going to talk him up as best they can until a suitor comes along. They’re going to lean into his improvement over the summer at the podium and on social media. They’re going to do what they can to bolster his strongest days of practice in front of the media so that we write stories and talk about it. They’re going to do what they can to make him really pop in joint practices and in the preseason games.
The Tennessee Titans are on a PR warpath for Will Levis, and it’s what’s best for both them and him. In the end, they hope to get the most they can for him. And he hopes to be seen as valuable to his new landing spot where he gets to begin again. And for everybody’s sake, the collective hope is that the improvement is real! And that his strong offseason story writes itself, because he really is a valuable NFL player. That’s reason #1 to hold a “competition”.
Avoiding A Case Of Anthony Richardson Brain
Reason #2 takes us to another AFC South team: the Indianapolis Colts. Specifically, the 2023 Indianapolis Colts. When they selected 20 year old Anthony Richardson with the 4th overall pick, he was the 4th youngest QB drafted since 1950. And when he set foot in Indianapolis, he was the man right away. He was handed the keys to the Ferrari without any resistance, and well, you’ve seen all the fender benders and car trouble that has ensued.
Now, that hasn’t all happened entirely because of how they onboarded him without any competition. There’s a lot that’s gone into his mess of a career so far. But a good deal of it stems at least in part from his mindset from the beginning. You’ve probably heard and read more reports than you can keep track of that reference people questioning his grind and his level of maturity. Whispers about showing up late and not seeming to take his job as seriously as he should. The smoke on all of this reached a point of critical pressure last year when he willingly took himself out on a play because he was tired. That firestorm of bad press was fueled by the boiling-over of frustrations behind the scenes.
And today, you see the Colts doing what they themselves have admitted they wish they’d done from the start. They went out and signed Daniel Jones to an eight-figure contract to not just be a high-end backup, but to fight Richardson for the starting job. And there are a lot of people who seriously think he will win that competition! But this is at the very least a line in the sand the Colts have drawn: beat out Daniel Jones, or you don’t belong as a starting QB in the NFL. Think that lights a fire under Anthony? Of course it will.
Now, there isn’t cause for nearly the same level of concern with Cam Ward as there was with Richardson. Ward is older, and his mental makeup is a very prominent strength of his profile. But at the end of the day, a rookie cutting his teeth in the NFL is still a rookie cutting his teeth. this foundation is where their legacy begins, it’s what it’s built on. And being forced to come in and take the keys to the car will wire you differently than simply being handed them; even when the competition is ultimately for show.
Earning The Locker Room’s Respect
The 3rd and final reason is similar to the 2nd. Just because this competition is for show doesn’t mean it doesn’t mean something to the veterans on the team.
A starting quarterback that is an effective leader of the entire locker room is somebody that has earned immense respect. And simply being the 1st overall draft pick isn’t enough for these professional, grown men tasked with laying it all on the line for one another every Sunday.
You have to work to earn the respect of the 7 year veteran offensive linemen, who is putting his body in the way of monsters to protect you every play. Same goes for the longtime defenders giving 110% effort to get you back onto the field, trusting you to go win the game. These vets don’t all take kindly to a kid coming in and being handed the reigns right away. When they see him come in and work to earn it—even in a phony competition—that means something.
