Jan. 22, 2026, 11:01 a.m. ET
The Tennessee Titans selected rookie quarterback Cam Ward with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. The team, and Cam himself, had high expectations for this season. Those expectations were quickly derailed, though, as the Titans faltered and floundered their way through the 2025 season.
Despite all of the adversity faced by the Titans, Ward was the only rookie quarterback to start every single game in 2025, and he played every single snap until he went down with a sprained shoulder in Week 18. He took a lot of sacks, and he struggled with turnovers, but he showed visible growth throughout the season. He has shown that he is everything a team could want in a quarterback.
All of that makes it hard to swallow that Ward wasn’t even a finalist for the NFL’s Offensive Rookie of the Year Award.
Both Tyler Shough (11) and Jaxson Dart (14) played fewer games than Ward. Dart threw 15 touchdowns, which matches Ward, but only threw five interceptions, two fewer than Cam Ward. But Ward threw for the most yards, and while his completion percentage is lower than the other two quarterbacks, look at who he was throwing to. The Titans’ receivers are incredibly young, especially after Calvin Ridley went down.
Ward was likely never going to receive this award for a variety of reasons, but that he’s not even a finalist is a huge slap in the face of a guy who came into a troubled franchise and made an impact all season long.
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