The Tennessee Titans have their new quarterback in Cam Ward, two years after taking Will Levis to be their franchise guy.
Levis was expected to be with the Titans for a long time, but it's hard to imagine him staying with the team much longer.
Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio slammed the Titans for trying to keep Levis as Ward's backup quarterback.
"That’s so weird about this," Florio said h/t Bleacher Report contributor Gary Davenport.
"You can find backup quarterbacks. Why are you insistent on keeping Levis around? We always look for whispers and whiffs and signs of dysfunction. That keeps you in the dysfunctional category. When you have two years with a young quarterback and it hasn’t worked out, and your team has bottomed out. You earned the number one pick, and you drafted a quarterback. Most functioning teams would get rid of the guy that is being replaced. Because it’s just a weird environment. It just adds weird and awkward into your mix.”
Levis has been impressing the Titans during OTAs, but so has Cam Ward. Levis hasn't requested a trade yet, at least publicly, so for now, he's with the Titans. Ward hasn't been named the starter, so until he is, the job belongs to Levis.
It's abundantly clear, however, that this is Ward's job to lose. It may not be in Week 1, but it's only a matter of time before he is the starter. Keeping Levis around isn't in his best interest, but the Titans don't have much of a choice at this point.
Eventually, a trade could be on the horizon, and the team could shop him around training camp, but for now, he is with the Titans playing alongside Ward.
Titans HC Sends Warning to Cam Ward
Tennessee Titans quarterback Cam Ward is a wide-eyed kid in the candy store after being named the No. 1 overall pick of the NFL Draft.
A lifelong dream is being fulfilled, and Ward is excited to get to work for the Titans.
Rookies have a tendency to be eager and overzealous, which prompted Titans head coach Brian Callahan to send a reminder to Ward that the NFL season is a marathon, not a sprint.
"Everybody always starts out of the gate pretty hot, you know? But you start to get into the actual routine and you understand how long of a season it is and the marathon that it is for young players from the time they finish their college season to the time they finish NFL season. I've made that point," Callahan said via team reporter Jim Wyatt.
"Just again, I'm not telling him what to do, I'm just making the point that there's a lot ahead of him that he's not aware of yet when it comes to this, the length and the week-to-week-to-week grind that comes up for these guys. It is a marathon. I mean, this is a long run for these young players and all of them have to have the same sort of mindset that you're trying to get better every day and trying to put the work in that's required."
"But there's also that element of this is going to go all the way into January every day for the next however many months. And there is a bit of pace that's probably required. They learn, they figure it out, but you try to help them and give them advice and point it out when you can, but I have no problem with guys trying to get the work in."
Ward and the Titans will participate in a mandatory minicamp, which begins Tuesday at the team's practice facility.
