{"id":847557,"date":"2026-04-01T17:20:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847557\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T17:20:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T17:20:15","slug":"talk-of-progress-for-cam-ward-and-competition-behind-him-at-the-quarterback-position-for-titans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/847557\/","title":{"rendered":"Talk of Progress for Cam Ward, and Competition Behind Him at the Quarterback Position for Titans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHOENIX \u2013 Cam Ward has started throwing the football, and everything the Titans said about their quarterback here this week points to progress, and improvement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll take it week by week,&#8221; Titans General Manager Mike Borgonzi said of Ward. &#8220;But he is on track.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ward is coming off a rookie season when he threw for 3,169 yards, 15 touchdowns and seven interceptions, with a passer rating of 80.3. He showed tremendous improvement in the final weeks of his rookie season.<\/p>\n<p>Ward is also coming off a right shoulder injury that forced him to begin the offseason doing rehab.<\/p>\n<p>Titans coach Robert Saleh said Ward has been working in the building, and sometimes on his own.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;He is in there, he is working with the trainers, working in the weight room,&#8221; Saleh said. &#8220;We are up to date. I am not going to put a timetable on anything (on his injury), but he is progressing really well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Saleh has studied Ward plenty since being hired as the team&#8217;s head coach back in January.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh said he has seen something else from Ward that has left him even more impressed, and it has nothing to do with his ability on the field.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I try to observe people from afar, and Cam is there every day,&#8221; Saleh said. &#8220;Obviously we can&#8217;t talk ball with him (because of NFL rules), but I can watch him interact with the people in the building. I think it is very impressive for a young man to walk through the building and know everybody by name from the janitors to the chefs to the trainers, and he addresses them by name. He is a really, really good man. I just think his head is on the right way, he has the right work ethic. I just don&#8217;t see him failing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s something Saleh is really looking forward to seeing when the offseason program begins next week, and football interaction is allowed between coaches and players.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh thinks Ward&#8217;s relationship with offensive coordinator Brian Daboll will be fun to observe.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s going to be awesome,&#8221; Saleh said with a smile. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;ll bicker at each other every once in a while, and they&#8217;ll challenge each other often. But that is the exact temperament that you want out of your quarterback.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ward, who started all 17 games for the Titans in 2025, played every snap before suffering a right shoulder injury in the season finale at the Jaguars.<\/p>\n<p>Ward&#8217;s 540 attempts in 2025 were more than every quarterback in franchise history in a season other than Warren Moon, who had 655 attempts in 1991 and 584 attempts in 1990.<\/p>\n<p>The Titans will spend the offseason helping Ward, and the team improve.<\/p>\n<p>Behind Ward, the Titans say they have some decisions to make.<\/p>\n<p>After signing veteran Mitchell Trubisky in free agency, the Titans now have at least three quarterbacks in the room, including Will Levis. And that was before a report on Wednesday from NFL insider Jordan Schultz indicating the team planned to sign former University of Tennessee QB Hendon Hooker.<\/p>\n<p>Both Borgonzi and Saleh were complimentary of both Trubisky and Levis while talking &#8220;competition&#8221; for the spot behind Ward. The coach and the GM spoke before the reported deal with Hooker, which has not been confirmed by the team.<\/p>\n<p>Saleh said the battle will elevate whoever the back-up is while saying it&#8217;s &#8220;too early to close the door&#8221; on Levis, a second round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think you can&#8217;t have enough good quarterbacks in the room,&#8221; Borgonzi said. &#8220;Will has been great, he has been in there working out and I know he is ready to go, feels healthy. I think everyone has a clean slate in terms of the back-ups there. Cam is obviously the starter, but competition brings out the best in everyone.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2013 Cam Ward has started throwing the football, and everything the Titans said about their quarterback here&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2061],"tags":[7,786,6,1018,526,394,2411,527],"class_list":{"0":"post-847557","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennessee-titans","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-homepage-centerpiece","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-team-football-news","12":"tag-tennessee","13":"tag-tennessee-titans","14":"tag-tennesseetitans","15":"tag-titans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}