The Cam Ward & Will Levis comparisons are becoming too uncanny for Titans' comfort

Tennessee Titans fans have already watched one young quarterback struggle with accuracy. They don’t want to watch it happen again. Cam Ward isn’t Will Levis, but his 59.8% rookie completion last season rate finished only 1.4 points above Levis’ 58.4% in his only season as a starter. That’s close enough to make the comparison eye-opening.

The Levis comparison looks even worse when Ward is stacked against other recent rookies. Among 12 qualifying quarterbacks playing in their first NFL season from 2023 through 2025, Ward ranked ninth in completion percentage, according to StatMuse. (limited to quarterbacks with at least 14 attempts per team game, with ranking based on unrounded percentages.) That isn’t the middle of the pack. It’s much closer to the bottom.

Here’s what makes it surprising. Ward wasn’t an inaccurate quarterback at Miami. He completed 67.2% of his passes and set a school record. One year later, he was down to 59.8% with the Titans. Maybe it was the NFL adjustment. Maybe it was the protection and the receivers. Maybe some of it was Ward. It was probably a little bit of everything.

Tennessee Titans QB Cam Ward must distance himself from Will Levis as a sophomore

College success doesn’t always follow a quarterback into the NFL. Matt Leinart, Johnny Manziel, JaMarcus Russell and Zach Wilson are some of the more obvious reminders.

While researching Ward, we went back and watched some of his old Miami highlights. The first thing we noticed was how different he looked in the pocket. He seemed comfortable dropping straight back, waiting on the play to develop and finding the open receiver. With the Titans, he starts drifting to his right instead of trusting the pocket. That’s something NFL defenses will notice. If they take away that escape route and force him back to his left, it could lead to more hurried throws and more sacks.

Now the numbers get more interesting. PFF charted all 217 of Ward’s incompletions. Sixty were caused by the defense and another 28 came from receiver errors. That’s 88 incompletions that weren’t just Ward missing his guy. But Ward still had 28 overthrows, 25 passes thrown in front, 12 behind and nine underthrown. The Titans didn’t help him on every play. The No. 1 overall pick didn’t always help himself either.

Tennessee Titans QB Cam Ward must showcase 2026 growth

Titans fans were hoping the start of Year 2 would look different. Instead, Ward went 5-of-12 for 57 yards in his first preseason game. He didn’t throw a touchdown, finished with a 56.6 passer rating and was called for intentional grounding.

It was only three series. Still, it looked too much like his rookie season.

There was one big reason for hope. Ward helped lead the Titans on an 11-play, 95-yard touchdown drive to open the game.

Ward found Calvin Ridley for 18 yards on third-and-3, then hit Gunnar Helm for 16 yards on third-and-10. Tony Pollard finished it with a five-yard touchdown run. Ward didn’t carry the offense by himself, but he made two big throws when the drive needed them.

Tennessee Titans OC Brian Daboll gives Cam Ward a real reason for hope

This is where offensive coordinator Brian Daboll matters. Ward doesn’t need someone to ignore the accuracy problems. He needs a coach who can settle him in the pocket, clean up his footwork and build an offense around what he does best.

Daboll has helped turn around a struggling quarterback before. Josh Allen’s completion percentage jumped from 58.8% in 2019 to 69.2% in 2020 while Daboll was Buffalo’s offensive coordinator. Allen also threw 37 touchdown passes that season, and Daboll was named AP Assistant Coach of the Year.

Allen deserves most of the credit for becoming the quarterback he is. But he isn’t Daboll’s only success story. In Daboll’s first season as the Giants’ head coach, Daniel Jones completed 67.2% of his passes, threw only five interceptions and helped New York reach the playoffs.

None of that guarantees Daboll will turn Ward into Allen. It does show he has gotten better football out of young quarterbacks before. Daboll has already indicated he'll build an offense Ward is comfortable with. If Ward is going to trust the pocket again and rediscover some of that Miami accuracy, Daboll gives him a real chance to reach his potential.

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