Look: There’s going to be plenty of talk about Cam Ward. Don’t worry. His name will be written many, many, many times as the Tennessee Titans progress through their offseason program.

But as the Titans convene for rookie minicamp May 9, Ward can’t and shouldn’t be the focus. Whether Ward presents as a fully-formed quarterback or a work in progress during these rookie camp practices is immaterial. He’s the Titans’ quarterback of the future regardless of the outcomes of a few practices in May.

Viewing rookie minicamp through the Ward lens just won’t work. He has nothing to gain and nothing to lose.

Plenty of his fellow rookies do, though. Keeping that perspective is key to understanding why Titans rookie minicamp actually does matter. Because even if Ward’s status as the face of the Titans isn’t at stake, there’s much to learn about his supporting cast and how it’ll be deployed.

Here are three non-Cam Ward storylines that should be the focus of Titans rookie minicamp.

Wide receiver logjam: Roles for Elic Ayomanor, Chimere Dike, Xavier Restrepo?

Titans coach Brian Callahan said he expects Ayomanor, the fourth-round pick out of Stanford, to begin his career at the “X” position, which is the wide receiver spot most associated with being the end man on the line of scrimmage.

Dike, his fellow fourth-round pick, is someone Callahan says will be able to rove between all three receiver spots and the team is going to have to figure out where he fits best. And Callahan hasn’t spoken about Restrepo yet since the team hasn’t made his undrafted free agent contract official yet, but 90% of Restrepo’s snaps last year at Miami came from the slot.

Calvin Ridley primarily played on the outside last year. Despite his size, so did free agent add Tyler Lockett. And fellow free agent add Van Jefferson. Ridley and Lockett are versatile enough to move inside as needed. But it stands to reason that the rookie receiver who can make the biggest difference in the slot is the one who’ll have the clearest path to early playing time.

Dike, for what it’s worth, split his time between the outside and inside receiver positions at a roughly equal rate in college. Ayomanor, also fitting Callahan’s assessment, spent significantly more time on the outside.

That’s a lot of DTs: Who joins Jeffery Simmons, T’Vondre Sweat?

The list of reported and confirmed UDFAs the Titans signed across the defensive line is as expansive as it is diverse. The group ranges from big edge rushers who can bump inside (UNC’s Desmond Evans) to smaller defensive tackles with upside (Auburn’s Philip Blidi, Northern Illinois’ Devonte O’Malley), prototypical multi-gap defensive linemen (Boston College’s Cam Horsley) and massive nose-tackle types (Auburn’s Isaiah Raikes).

With Simmons, Sweat and Sebastian Joseph-Day returning for 2025, the Titans’ starting D-line is set. But the depth pieces behind that trio are anyone’s job to win. Seeing how the Titans deploy this varied group of potential contributors will go a big way toward indicating which skillsets the Titans value behind their stars.

So … do the Tennessee Titans have a return man?

Dike returned kicks and punts in college. So did Restrepo, albeit less frequently. Running backs Kalel Mullings and Micah Bernard (an undrafted signee) earned a small handful of return reps across their college careers. Beyond that, anyone getting a look as a returner would be doing so for the first time since high school.

It’s hard to say Dike was a good returner in college. He muffed three punts in the last two years, averaging 11.5 yards per return. That’s not the kind of transformative performance that’ll guarantee him the job, or distract from his need to produce on offense. But if the Titans give him plenty of looks on special teams, that should indicate something about how the Titans can make roster decisions on more-seasoned return specialist types like Mason Kinsey, James Proche II and Jha’Quan Jackson.

Nick Suss is the Titans beat writer for The Tennessean. Contact Nick at  nsuss@gannett.com. Follow Nick on X, the platform formerly called Twitter, @nicksuss.