The Tennessee Titans understood the potential consequences attached to selecting Cam Ward with the first pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.
As soon as a coach and GM draft a quarterback, the clock starts on their tenure. If they make the right choice, they get to continue to build around that quarterback and have job security at positions with a high turnover rate around the league.
If they are wrong, they will almost certainly be fired within two years of that quarterback proving to be a bust. Those are the stakes of taking a quarterback high, especially when it was followed by the top player in the draft (Travis Hunter) to going to a division rival, though that was unforeseen to the Titans (The Jaguars traded up).
That's how much conviction the Titans had when they selected Ward at No. 1 overall. Despite the pick receiving very little media coverage, Borgonzi, Brian Callahan, and Chad Brinker believe they have their franchise QB, and they've all been around one in their previous stops.
Albert Breer's latest article examines the Titans' process on identifying Ward as their choice in terrific detail.
The best way to sum up the team's process in deciding whether they should draft Ward is, they gave him every chance to prove that he wasn't the guy, but he kept acing every test until they had no choice but to draft him.
The process starts where it always starts, with the tape. In that article, Breer outlines how the Titans watched his film from this season in Miami, then his time at Washington State, and even all the way back to his time at Incarnate Word.
They detailed how you could see Ward's talent and the upside all the way back at Incarnate Word, and every year, you could see him gradual improvement while correcting his flaws and learning his limitations. By the time Ward finished in Miami, his growth and understanding of what he could and couldn't do were as impressive as his spatial awareness, feel in the pocket, and arm talent.
They believe he'll continue getting better, because that's all he's ever done.
While the tape doesn't lie, it doesn't tell you the full story either. By now, everyone knows that Ward has a magnetic personality that draws in coaches and teammates alike, with a natural ability to lead a locker room. Is he going to do the little things that you need your franchise quarterback to do? How did he treat people outside of the building? Well, the Titans tested that during his visit with the team by evaluating how he treated people in the building without fancy titles, and he aced that too.
Breer's article sums these interactions like this: "At the end of it, what the Titans brass got back from different folks around the building was consistent. 'The respect level he had for everyone in the building stood out,' [Mike] Borgonzi says."
What about his coaches? Were they really that high on Ward's character, or was that just coach speak to push a guy they coached higher in the draft?
The Titans checked that too. Obviously, they did their research around the University of Miami campus during the team's Pro Day, but they also went beyond that. They talked to Wake Forest head coach Jake Dickert, Ward's head coach at Washington State, and North Texas head coach Eric Morris, Ward's head coach at Incarnate Word and his OC/QB coach at Washington State.
Still, the front office couldn't find anyone who would say anything that disputed the character and leadership that Ward has become infamous for. No matter how many stones they turned over, it was just more of the same.
At that point in the process, the Titans had enough data points on the prospect and the person to push all their chips to the middle of the table. After weeks and months of trying to find a reason to even consider an attractive trade offer to move down the board and gather picks that could be used to rebuild this broken roster, the truth became crystal clear. Ward was their guy.
Regardless of what state the team's roster was in, or how long Borgonzi had been in charge of the Titans' personnel moves, Ward was the type of quarterback prospect you just can't pass up. He summed up the situation like this in Breer's article:
"It just speaks to the conviction I had on him, and that we all had. It’s so hard to find what you’d perceive to be a franchise quarterback and have an opportunity to get one. And he has the potential to be one. And I don’t know if we’ll ever be in this spot again to do it, or I’ll be in this spot again to do it. So, obviously, I had to feel really convicted on Cam, that he can be a franchise quarterback. And that’s really what it is. I know there’s a lot of pressure that comes with that, with the No. 1 pick, and then just taking a quarterback. So the clock starts now for us.”