Titans facing unavoidable recent history they must overcome to keep Cam Ward from having Trevor Lawrence, Bryce Young rookie year originally appeared on A to Z Sports.
Let’s talk about a little cognitive dissonance with the Tennessee Titans.
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Everybody is excited about what 2025 will bring for this franchise, at least to some extent. Some are looking forward to it marking the end of a three-year slide out of relevancy. Some are looking forward to a frisky Year 1 with a new QB earning his stripes. And some think this team has 2024 Washington Commanders potential, to be the latest worst-to-first explosion onto the national stage. Well, Washington didn’t actually get all the way to first… but you know what I mean.
And just about all of that optimism is built around rookie 1st overall pick Cam Ward. Of course it is! He’s a very exciting prospect who has given us nothing but green flags so far. Even if you want to be patient and skeptical, he’s made it increasingly difficult to maintain that sobriety. I know I’ve certainly felt that pull.
But when we look back on recent history, a sobering reality can make you think twice about coming back down to earth for the time being.
On the Athletic Football Show last week, hosts Robert Mays and Derrik Klassen talked through the duality of NFL expectations, hunting down common threads in the kinds of teams that over or under-perform our preseason expectations. It was a fun topic, I recommend giving the episode a listen.
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Now what you need to know going into this is that both Derrick and Robert have previously expressed their cautious optimism for the Titans and Cam Ward this year. But during a conversation about teams who have failed to meet expectations, which had nothing to do with the Titans, they stumbled into an uncomfortable realization. Mays begins by describing the type of team here that tends to underperform:
“The quarterback teams that I think we overrate, where there’s a little bit too much excitement on it, are teams with young, highly drafted quarterbacks… but everything else around them is really dangerously fragile. And I think the two most recent examples of two teams that underperformed their over/under total pretty significantly the last two years: the 2024 Bears had an 8.5 over/under, they won 5 games. The 2022 Panthers had a 7.5 over/under, won 2 games.
Both of those teams had the number one pick at quarterback. Both of those offensive play callers were fired before that first season was over. So just because you have a shiny new quarterback, if you haven’t gotten some of the other stuff right, there is a decent chance you will not be as good as the market expects you to be.”
Klassen agreed:
“That’s a good one. The young quarterbacks play into so many of the overrated and underrated ones, honestly. But that’s one of those things where regardless of how you feel about the player, right, Caleb Williams, Bryce Young, whoever it is, Trevor Lawrence, even if your team is picking first overall, you’re probably not a very good team.
That’s kind of what makes the whole Jayden Daniels/Washington thing pretty spectacular. everyone was so excited about Trevor Lawrence and they were not even close. They were the worst team in the league, like far and away. That was basically what happened with the Panthers. Again, the Bears weren’t quite the worst team in the league, but they were close!
So it’s like… maybe it’s specifically picking first overall, that you should not get too excited about it. You should really take stock. Like, man, I love this new quarterback. This is a great, shiny new toy. But let’s chill out for just a little bit.”
That’s when the current situation with the Titans hit them. Robert shot back: “OK, how do you square that with like the tepid Titans optimism that we’ve both shown over the last month?”
Derrik paused, and replied with a simple expletive.
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They both laughed at that dissonance, because what are you supposed to say? Recent history looks bleak for a team like the Titans. But that doesn’t change how they feel about this specific team. As Klassen jokingly quipped, “this time is going to be different, you know?”
Now, this isn’t some death sentence for Tennessee. It’s just a gentle reminder that when all of your hope is predicated on the rookie QB, it can blind you to some unsavory realities elsewhere on the roster. And the general classification of “team with a rookie QB and dangerously fragile things around him” applies only somewhat to the Titans in my estimation.
On offense, I don’t see this infrastructure as particularly fragile. I have a lot of faith in what this upgraded OL is going to do for the general success of that side of the ball, Ward especially. And while the receiver situation could prove subpar all year, I think they have enough to work with in the passing game in totality to get by. Ridley, Lockett, Okonkwo, Spears, and Pollard are all proven quantities that can keep that ship afloat enough at a bare minimum. The rest is unproven upside.
On defense is where the words “dangerously fragile” ring truest to me. I’ve written at length about how I think that side of the ball might be a house of cards held up by L’Jarius Sneed and all of his uncertainty. Read all about that right here.
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If the defense crumbles, it could set up the offense to have to produce at untenable levels early in Ward’s career just to keep up with each opponent. Look at how the Bengals had to operate in 2024 with significantly better offensive pieces at their disposal? That’s the nightmare scenario that could certainly lead to an outcome like Derrik and Robert talked about on the podcast. Here’s to hoping the Titans aren’t the next team added to that sad lineage.
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This story was originally reported by A to Z Sports on Jul 6, 2025, where it first appeared.